


Shouting In Cafes

by Duganator01



Series: Cafe College Chaos [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Boys In Love, Coffee Shops, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 34,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23431777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duganator01/pseuds/Duganator01
Summary: Neptune keeps getting dumped and is honestly about to give up on dating all together. He'd much rather focus on his crappy job, and his schoolwork. Anything but dating. The universe, as always, conspires to ruin everyone's plans.Or: The coffee shop AU that nobody asked for or wanted, but that I wrote anyway.(In the same universe as Coffee Cup Woes, but before that timeline wise)
Relationships: Neptune Vasilias/Sun Wukong
Series: Cafe College Chaos [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685560
Comments: 21
Kudos: 82





	1. Unfortunate Meetings

**Author's Note:**

> As far as first impressions went, there was probably some way that this could have gone worse. But you’d be hard pressed to think of one of those ways.

Neptune was working his shift more than a little hungover from last night. Plastic cups kept toppling out of his hands and coffee streams began shifting just to the right of the mugs. Thank god for dim aesthetic lighting and the constant smell of coffee beans pumping through his senses.

It had happened again. As soon as Neptune finally got a straight dude to realize how not straight he really was, the dude thanked him for this realization and left. Leaving Neptune with a bottle of wine to mull over alone.

How many times had this happened? Five? More? Numbers were a little fuzzy at the moment. Neptune silently thanked god that he wasn’t working the cash register.

“Excuse me?” a bored voice called, followed by a harsh tapping on his shoulder.

Neptune blinked and jerked his head upright. Oh god, his head. Dull pain pounded against his skull, black spots popped up in his vision. How much did he actually drink last night? This was not at all healthy.

“Huh?” Neptune asked.

“Your turn to work register.” God dammit. He should have known it was too good to last.

“Fine,” he managed after a pause.

“Dude, you’re drunk as hell.”

“Just very hungover.”

“Why are you here?”

“Do I look like I can afford college?”

“I mean, a little. You’ve got some fancy ass hair.”

Neptune groaned out a sigh. “Thank you, I try.”

“Good luck.”

His coworker clapped him on the back and the spotty vision returned. This was going to be an extremely long shift.

After a moment, Neptune registered a blurred moving object passing in front of his face. A second later, there was a snap by his ear that his headache did not appreciate, and then someone said. “Hello? Dude, can you take our order?”

More blinking. More time to register. There was a lot of blue, but maybe it was a face.

“Welcome to the Daily Grind. What can I get for you today?”

“Um, buddy, my eyes are up here.”

Neptune was a tall guy. Like, annoyingly tall. Sometimes he hit his head on door frames tall. But Neptune actually had to tilt his head up to look this guy square in the eye. Guy was a basketball player. He had to be. What else could he be doing with all that height.

In a moment of horror, Neptune realized he had been talking directly into this customer’s chest.

“You’ve got quite a pair of pecs,” Neptune heard himself say. The hangover was doing bad stuff to his brain. For some reason he was combining his well refined casanova talk with his already terrible mocking talk, and it was turning out awful. The embarrassment didn’t register.

As soon as the words left his mouth, the guy’s face registered. Very high cheekbones, very spiky hair, and a very surprised expression on his face.

“What?” the customer asked, eyebrows trying to escape into his hairline.

There was a light giggle beside the customer and Neptune felt his eyes drag a foot and a half down to where a pretty brunette was covering her mouth and giggling. Neptune tried to push away the judgement. It wasn’t like he was any better after all. And he had practically just catcalled this paying customer’s chest. Oh god, what was he doing?

“Oh Lord. Sorry, sir. I’m a little out of it,” Neptune admitted. It kind of felt like the entire coffee shop was suspended in honey and his mind was trying to keep him afloat.

A hearty laugh burst from the customer’s mouth. Hearty? Was hearty the right word? It started a ship captain’s bellow and dissolved into woodland pixie giggling by the end. “I can tell. Who says that? Kind of ridiculous thing to say right off the bat.”

Well. Even though Neptune was in the wrong, he still had pride in himself.

“I’m guessing a black coffee and a unicorn frappuccino? I’m not sure whose is whose though,” Neptune commented, shooting a sideways glance at the pair of them.

The customer prickled. His date laughed again.

“Hey, dude, what the fuck?” the guy said. He said “fuck” loud enough for some heads to turn. “I’m on a date right now.”

“I see that, and honestly, she seems to be enjoying the company of a horribly hungover guy more than a douche in a wifebeater.” Neptune should probably stop. The leftover alcohol was making his tongue and his brain disconnect.

The girl laughed again. It felt good that he could seduce someone through a pounding headache, but also awful because it was her date she was laughing at.

Her date was a douche, though. It was a moral grey area.

The customer pointed at Neptune. Pointed at him! This was a coffee shop! The fury in his eyes said murder, the finger said the time was now. His nails said he hadn’t ever seen a nail clipper other than his own teeth.

After an intense stare down, the finger was lowered, and the customer spat out a “Grande white mocha and a plain cappuccino.”

“What’s the name?”

“Sun.”

Neptune smiled. “Just a few minutes until that’s ready, Sun.”

His smile was returned with a glare and snarl. Again, this was a coffee shop. Not a wrestling match. Neptune wouldn’t be surprised if he was called out onto the street to throw down after the order was made.

He could feel himself punch in a few numbers while making deliberate eye contact with the guy, Sun. As soon as his receipt printed out, Sun reached across the counter and snatched it out of Neptune’s printer before moving down the line to wait at pick up, staring and squinting all the while.

As soon as they were out of each other’s sight, Neptune caught somebody else’s glance: Sun’s date. She wore a tiny smile on her face as she slid by, pupils following Neptune until they couldn’t. She was cute, though not really Neptune’s type.

“What just happened there?” Neptune’s coworker, Jaune, appeared beside him. It would’ve made him jump had his brain not been moving so slow.

“Asshat in flip flops talked back to me.”

“He’s a paying customer, Neptune!”

“And an asshat, Jaune!” Neptune slumped onto the counter. Lucky for him the coffee shop was so tiny and crummy. It was always slow, giving him some well-earned time between customers to mull over his life choices. “He pointed at me!”

“Pointed at you?”

“With his finger! Right in my face! Who does that?!”

“Who started the argument?”

“It was…” Neptune thought for a moment. “Technically me. But he said ‘my eyes are up here’ when I was staring at his chest.”

“Why were you staring at his chest.”

“I’m very hungover.”

“Why are you hungover.”

“I got dumped last night.”

Jaune paused, sighed, and opened his arms for a hug. Neptune raised an eyebrow. He did not hug. He did not show the urge to display physical affection. 

“Neptune, give me a hug.”

“No.”

“Neptune.”

“I don’t want a hug.”

“You got dumped. You’re hungover. You need a hug.”

Neptune gave into the hug. Jaune was a very soft person, emotionally if not physically. So even though their similar heights made it awkward, all his hugs were very comforting. The perks of having like a million siblings. And Neptune kind of needed it, though he would never admit it. 

The wine had been swung back between fits of crying, but the more wine he drank the more he would cry and by the time the sun started to peek through his curtains, there was a bottle gone and Neptune had to deal with the fact that he’d been practically inhaling a bottle as he fell asleep.

He didn’t even like the guy that much. But five times is a few times too many to get denied just when you realize you like someone. It hurt. And the hurt had been building up for a while.

“I just can’t keep a guy,” Neptune said into Jaune’s shoulder. His curling blonde hair smelled like dish soap.

“Maybe you have bad taste in guys?” he asked.

“I do not have bad taste in guys.”

“You obviously do if they keep dumping you!”

“Hug over.” Neptune tried to pull away but Jaune resisted. That oversized sweatshirt he always wore hid the strength of a mammoth.

“Hug not over. Stop bottling everything inside! It’s annoying.”

“I can’t not bottle, Jaune! I’m not a feelings guy!”

“You could be if you tried!”

“Let go!”

“Ahem.”

There was a customer waiting.

“Shit,” Neptune said. Jaune finally released his grip and pushed Neptune out of the way and into the syrups.

“Sorry about that, ma’am! What will you be having today?” Jaune said in his brightest customer service voice. He caught his eye for a second, giving him a look that said, _‘You’re really out of it. I’ll take care of the cash register. Go do something useful.’_

Neptune silently thanked god for Jaune Arc.

Only two more customers came in during the thirty minutes Neptune was on syrup duty, leaving Jaune and Neptune to make idle chatter. The whole time, Neptune kept glancing back to the dude from before. Sun. He kept laughing with his date, pounding on the table and overall being very loud.

Everything about him was loud. His sandals, his shorts, his shirt, his hair spikes that defied gravity and Neptune could verify just how weird they were because he saw them with his own two eyes. Why the hell would this dickhead dudebro come into a tiny local coffee shop with crummy staff and crappy food? On a date?

Sun’s date would still softly giggle when it looked like Sun had cracked a joke, but Neptune caught her writing something on her straw wrapper when Sun turned around.

And then they were leaving.

No fight, no duel, no screaming match. They were just leaving. The only suggestion of bad blood was the glare Sun shot Neptune as he opened the door for his date. Other than that, nothing.

Nothing except Sun’s date passing something to Neptune without looking as they passed by the bar.

Neptune unfurled the crumpled straw wrapper in his hands and stared at the telephone number written there.

“What’s that?” Jaune asked, leaning on a broom.

“A number.”

“Oooo. Is he cute?”

“She. And I guess.”

“You gonna call her?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“She was the date of that douchebag.”

“Oh, wow.” A pause. “Oh wow! I guess the date didn’t go well, then?”

“Who could've guessed?”

“And you’re not gonna call her.”

“Why would I?”

Jaune smiled. “I’m proud of you, Neptune! And here I thought you were gonna call her in an act of revenge against the shorts and sandals guy you initiated the fight with! I guess people can-”

“I’m gonna call her.”

“There it is.”


	2. Downsides Of Revenge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If possible, second impressions go even worse. And this time, he doesn’t even have the excuse of being hungover. As much as he wished he was.

Neptune laid in bed, phone on his chest, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. His hangover had finally worn off and he was starting to regret everything. Why had he initiated anything? He should’ve just acted passively annoyed and let the guy - Sun right? - figure out how much of a dick he was being by himself.

Why the hell did he tell him he had nice pecs?

He wasn’t in his right mind when he was hungover. That was apparent.

So, now he was debating whether he should actually call this girl and get one last blow in. It was a shady move. Using a girl for petty revenge. Was he really that kind of guy? What had Sun really done to him?

Neptune considered opening the bottle of replacement-wine he’d just bought.

No. Stop. He needed to stop. He wasn’t using a girl to get back at a guy he met once who kind of pissed him off. He needed to sleep. He needed to get his shit together.

He’d take care of it in the morning.

“Well, hello, sunshine.” Jaune greeted a drowsy, rumpled Neptune with a broom in his hand and a flower from one of his sisters stuck awkwardly into his blonde curls.

Morning light streamed through the windows of the empty coffee shop, the smell of fresh coffee and Jaune’s careful sweeps across the tile floor the only indication that the building was open. Neptune checked his watch. 7:05 AM. They didn’t get customers until around nine. They had some time to kill.

Neptune rubbed at the bags under his eyes with the heel of his hand. “Do I look that bad?”

“Yes.”

“Thanks.” He shoved his card into the slot to clock in with a little more force than needed.

“Not enough sleep?”

“I went to bed at like nine but kept waking up in the middle of the night.”

“Nightmares?”

“Stress dreams, more like.”

“Are you still trying to be mad about that guy?”

“I’m not trying! And no. I don’t know.”

“Did you get your revenge?”

“I’m not going to sleep with somebody’s girlfriend out of spite. Even if she’s dating a douche. She seemed pretty nasty herself.”

“Hm. She did give you her number while she was on a date, didn’t she?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you even know her name?”

“No.”

“Well then, that settles that!” Jaune plucked the flower from his hair and tucked it behind Neptune’s ear, poking his friend in the eye in the process. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll never see either of them again, anyway.”

Jaune’s soft smiles were one of the only things that could warm Neptune’s heart. He tried not to show any emotion other than general annoyance whenever he could, but Jaune never failed to see right through him. He appreciated that sometimes.

But right now, Neptune couldn’t tell if he wanted to be annoyed by Jaune’s optimism or not. He settled on giving him a soft smile. He tried harder than most people he knew. “Thanks, Jaune.”

“No problem. You’re on register today.”

“God dammit, Jaune.”

The day was slow. Slower than usual. By three in the afternoon, they had only had five customers. Neptune caught himself falling asleep a couple times while standing up, which could not be healthy. Had he done his homework? God, he didn’t remember. All he remembered doing last night was staring at his phone and contemplating whether he wanted to be an asshole or not.

No homework then. He could do it before class. After work. How much longer did he have?

The door opened. Shoes smacked against the floor.

“Welcome to The Daily Grind. What can I get for you to-”

It was the dickhead. And his girlfriend. Again.

Neptune took a breath. Cleared his throat. “Welcome to The Daily Grind. What can I get for you today?”

The guy- Sun? -hunched his bare shoulders up to his ears. He was wearing one of those tank tops that had nearly the entire side of them cut out of them so you got a healthy dose of chest no matter what angle you were looking on from. They were nice shoulders. He didn’t deserve nice shoulders.

Thankfully, his expression took away from his body. Cocky and whimsical and snarky, like he knew everything you didn’t. “What? Not hungover today? No sleazy remarks?”

God, he commented on how nice his pecs were yesterday, didn’t he? No. God, no, of God why. Why would he let him have the upper hand like that? Bad move, bad move. Wine did bad things to him. Never again. Or at least he’d settle for never that much.

Embarrassment flooded to his cheeks and he tried to choke it back down. “Could I please take your order.”

Sun forced his palms against the table, winking and flashing a toothy grin. “What? No guts now that you don’t have some booze in you?”

“I’m working. Please keep your voice down.” Neptune let himself wonder if Sun could ever be quieter than a jackhammer.

“You were working yesterday, too! But that didn’t stop you from saying that my pecs were nice!”

Neptune leaned forward. “I like complimenting a handsome man when I see one, but no matter how nice your body is, your personality reeks of frat boy and beer.”

Sun’s date appeared beside him, grinning at Neptune from ear to ear. Sun’s face melted into pouted lips and a worried brow, like Neptune had actually offended him. Neptune felt victorious for a moment, before more heat rose to his face.

He was at work. All three of their other customers were staring at him.

Neptune coughed and picked up some cups and a sharpie, staring straight at the plastic. “What will your orders be today?”

“Grande white mocha and a plain cappuccino,” Sun said.

“Right.”

There was a silent exchange of a credit card and a receipt. Neptune’s blush was finally fading away. Just as Sun and his date were walking away, Sun turned back around and asked, “Are you gay?”

Neptune tensed, mouth slack in shock. Finally he managed to stutter out, “Your order is almost ready, Sun.”

They stared at each other for a moment more before Sun spun on his heel and walked away.

“He asked me if I was gay,” Neptune said in a hushed voice, fingers pressed to his temples, head bowed to the floor. “Is this real life? Did someone just ask their fucking barista if they were gay?!”

“Were you acting gay?” Jaune asked.

“Jaune!” Neptune hissed, sounding scandalized.

“It’s a genuine question.”

“I said I liked complimenting handsome men. I kind of implied that he was a handsome man.”

“That’s pretty gay.”

“That’s not the point!” Neptune nearly yelled before gathering himself. “You don’t ask your barista if they’re gay! What?! No! You don’t do that. Who the hell does that? This guy, apparently!”

“Neptune.”

“I’m sorry, dude, but honestly what the fuck. I can’t believe this. Who acts like this?”

“Neptune, I understand, but calm down. Take a breath.”

“I have to retaliate.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I’m texting his girlfriend.”

“No, you’re not.”

Neptune pulled out his phone. “Then tell me what I’m doing right now.”

“Oh my god.”

He rummaged through his pockets and pulled out the crumpled straw wrapper, plugging in each digit into his phone. He thumbed the text icon and typed out a message.

* * *

**Ocean Man:** Hey this is the barista at the daily grind. I never caught your name.

* * *

“Sent it,” Neptune said and waggled the phone in front of Jaune’s face.

“I can’t believe you,” Jaune sighed.

“I’m probably going to regret this later.”

“You definitely are.”

They both watched as Sun’s date sipped her coffee, set it down, and looked at her phone. Sun was too engrossed in his own storytelling to notice the smile that pulled on her lips or how fast her thumbs typed on the keyboard.

A few seconds later, Neptune’s phone buzzed. Neptune puffed out a sigh. Guess he was doing this.

* * *

**No Contact:** Aria. And you?

 **Ocean Man:** Neptune vasilias. Nice to meet you aria. Quick question. Why are you going out on a date with that guy? You dont seem to like him.

 **No Contact:** He’s hot and he asked me out. Quickly finding that his personality sucks. You’re cuter. Wanna hang?

* * *

Neptune gave his phone a sour expression. No matter if the guy was a dick, you should at least finish the date before setting up a new one with someone else.

Jaune read over his shoulder. “Yikes.”

“Yeah.”

Neptune looked up and across the cafe to find Aria looking over her shoulder, smiling, and waving at him. No.

And Sun was glaring straight at him. _No_.

Was this what he wanted?

Sun stood up, nearly knocking his chair over backwards as he stomped back to the bar.

“Is this what you wanted?” Jaune asked, echoing his thoughts.

“What do you want exactly?” Sun questioned, pushing a finger into the middle of Neptune’s chest. “To piss me off? Is that why you’re flirting with my date in front of me?”

“Look. You might be an ass but she’s the one who gave me her number while you two were here yesterday. You might want to find someone who actually likes you.”

Neptune could hear Aria squeak in outrage from the other side of the cafe.

“Fine! But that doesn’t explain why you actually texted her!”

“I think I wanted to make you mad.”

“What the hell!”

“You asked me, your barista that you don’t know the name of, if I was gay!”

“You were acting pretty gay!” Sun exclaimed, as if that explained everything.

“So what?!”

“I dunno! But you obviously aren’t because you’re flirting with my date!”

“Why do you still care? She doesn’t like you!”

Jaune stepped to the side of Neptune. “Dude, you might wanna stop.”

Neptune didn’t stop. “I’m not having the best time right now! I got dumped two days ago, got painfully drunk and hungover and have had to deal with you repeatedly!”

“Neptune,” Jaune warned.

“You’re just a shitty frat boy! Why the hell are you in a tiny coffee house on a date at three in the afternoon?”

“I get free coffee here!” Sun yelled. Not that it made a difference, his only volume setting was yelling.

“No, you don’t, you id-”

“My mom owns this place!”

Neptune went quiet. He stared at the fury burning in Sun’s eyes, white teeth bared, flimsy tank top threatening to fall off.

For once, he had no words. Well almost no words. Thank you Mama Vasilias, for your words of wisdom for these troubling times. Words that had helped him through many hardships before. Words straight from the old country.

“Merda,” Neptune muttered, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May have take some creative liberties with Sun's background, but ya know. *shrug* It is what it is.


	3. Revenge Resolved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An attempt to backtrack, revealing of secrets, and Jaune is not paid enough to deal with this.

“Merda,” Neptune said, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging open. The world melted around him like ice cream on a hot day. Gross, sticky, cheap ice cream. Ice cream at room temperature. He was going to lose his job. He was going to go bankrupt. Oh god he could barely pay for college. Oh he had just blown a hundred bucks on cheap vodka and expensive wine.

All of this because he called out a shitty frat boy on his shit.

Said frat boy was inches away from his face, leaning across the bar with his finger pressed against Neptune’s chest. White teeth bared, eyebrows furrowed, face stretched in weird ways. He looked like he wanted murder.

And then he, too, was melting. Relaxing his arm and pulling his shoulders up towards his ears. He pouted, tilted his head. He honest to god looked like a lost puppy.

“ _Mehyda_?” Sun butchered. Neptune almost laughed despite himself. “What language is that?”

“Italian.” Neptune’s eyes couldn’t focus on one place. They pointed towards the large hand on his chest, then a poster on the window that said NO PETS ALLOWED, then the colorful syrups at his side. The room was swimming. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know your mom was the…”

“Why were you speaking Italian?”

Idiot.

A hand reached up and settled on Neptune’s shoulder, holding him still. He realized he had been swaying.

“I’m very sorry about this, sir!” Jaune consoled, fingers bunching the fabric of Neptune’s shirt. “It’s been… A hard week for some of us, haha!” He scooted closer to the counter, but Jaune’s nervous laughter did nothing to calm his nerves. “If you would mind not mentioning this to your mother, we would really appreciate it.”

Neptune watched a couple emotions flash across Sun’s face, some he couldn’t place. The utter confusion turned to something turned to something and landed on annoyance as he stepped back and stuck his nose in the air, crossing his arms across his chest.

“And why shouldn't I?” he asked.

“Neptune could lose his job!” Jaune blurted.

Neptune’s eyes went wide. No! No. He didn’t have to know! He flapped a hand at his coworker and tried to mask the panic on his face.

“So, you’re named Neptune, huh?” Sun said. A grin that was becoming familiar pulled at his cheeks. He threw his hands into the air in front of him. “Now I know what name to use when I report you!” 

Neptune barely restrained himself from mentioning that he was literally wearing a nametag that Sun could’ve read at any time. Mostly because he was dead. He was dead, and this was his personal hell.

He took a moment to be silent, let himself grasp at the recesses of his mind that weren’t panicking-

- _the owner, Neptune! You shit talk the owner’s son?!-_

-and took a breath.

“Listen. I’m sure we were both a little in the wrong in this scenario, can’t you agree?” Neptune said, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. Look like you know what you’re talking about. Look like you think you’re better than him.

Jaune and Sun’s heads turned at the same time.

Sun barked out a laugh. “Are you serious, dude? You said I had nice pecs!”

Think of something. “I was simply stating the truth.” Thought of the wrong something.

Neptune didn’t even think about looking at Jaune.

That gave Sun pause. “You were drunk off your ass! At work! And you flirted with my date right in front of me!”

“She’s an awful human being that passed me her number _while_ she was on a date with you. How many times do I have to say this? Think rationally!”

“That doesn’t matter! It’s the feeling that counts!” It sounded like something a little kid would say, but he said it with complete conviction. “Besides, have you even apologized?”

“Yes, I did! Multiple times, in fact!”

“I don’t remember any of that.”

Who the fuck did this guy think he was? A child. He was a literal child. An angry, extremely irrational child, but a child. What could’ve possibly made him-

Neptune paused and glanced him over. And suddenly it clicked.

“You’re rich, aren’t you?” Neptune asked.

It seemed to take Sun off guard. Finally.

Neptune steeled himself. “I’m going to be honest with you, Sun. I need this job. I _need_ this job. I’m a marketing student who only got into this college because I got a shit ton of scholarships. One mistake and I’m out. Have you ever felt that pressure before?”

Jaune tugged on Neptune’s shirt. “Neptune,” he hissed warningly.

Sun looked him over. God dammit, Neptune couldn’t read him. It was one of those in between emotions again, like you were on the way from one thought to another.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Sun said.

Neptune shouldn't have said anything. He had let this same dudebro have the upper hand again. How much dirt did he have on him now? Neptune was sure it was like ammunition in his huge, unmanicured hands.

In the hands of the owner’s son.

“Apologize and we’ll call it even.”

What?

Neptune looked up and nearly stumbled back. The guy was staring straight at him, eyes wide, eyebrows raised. Nice eyes.

“I’m sorry?” he said, hesitantly. This had to be a trick. This _had_ to be a trick.

“Great! We’re settled then!”

“No, what, that wasn’t a-”

Jaune slapped a hand across Neptune’s mouth, effectively cutting him off. “Great!” he exclaimed, much too brightly to be entirely casual. “I hope that we’ll see you around here again soon, sir!”

“Great!”

And with that, Sun walked away. Walked towards a very uncomfortable Aria. Walked out with a very awkward aire between the two.

“What the fuck just happened?” Neptune hissed, pulling Jaune to the side.

“You just blabbed your dark secret past to a total stranger!” Jaune yelled, gesturing wildly. “Do you know how long it took for me to get anything resembling that out of you? Weeks? Months, at least!”

“I don’t know, man! I panicked! I thought I was going to lose my job!”

“I know, but… Jeez dude. Relax, god damn.”

Neptune scoffed. “Relax? Really?! I’m the one you’re telling to relax? Not the idiot that nearly cost me my job?”

“Neptune, as soon as he even _mentioned_ something somewhat irritating, you went into attack mode. I’ve never seen you like that before in my life.”

“It’s just...everything about him. He makes me feel like I need to bathe.”

Jaune raised an eyebrow. “Is this a natural born enemies thing? A fated battle between two men? Because ya know, I could give you some pointers if-”

“No. What? What the hell man?”

“Never mind. I just feel like you two are going to attack on sight whenever you see each other again. And I’m not dealing with that.”

“What do you mean again? When am I supposed to be seeing him again?”

“Well, he’s coming back, right? His mom owns the place. He said he gets free coffee.”

Neptune felt a couple of his brain cells die.


	4. Tentative Reconciliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A break from work finally, and then Neptune is left to fend for himself at work without Jaune to supervise and restrain him.

**Noodle Dude:** are you drinking again dude?!

 **Ocean Man:** Im just having a glass of wine before bed. Relax.

 **Noodle Dude:** okay okay

 **Noodle Dude:** are you okay?

 **Ocean Man:** Why do you ask?

 **Noodle Dude:** you did break up with someone like two days ago and drank yourself to sleep over it :/

 **Ocean Man:** Yeah…

 **Ocean Man:** I mean Yeah!

 **Ocean Man:** Im fine dude. There will be other guys and girls.

 **Noodle Dude:** i know but it's been a rough couple of days and the break up didn't sound good

 **Noodle Dude:** i just wanted to check in

 **Ocean Man:** Im okay i promise. I have something else to focus on now.

 **Noodle Dude** : what's that?

 **Ocean Man:** Starts with an s and rhymes with fun.

 **Noodle Dude: N** eptuuuuuuuunnnne!! 

**Ocean Man:** Would you rather i be sad and drunk or angry and focused?

 **Noodle Dude:** neither of those things are good Neptune

 **Noodle Dude:** dude? you there?

 **Ocean Man:** Sorry i thought about the frat boy and wanted more wine.

 **Noodle Dude:** dude that's not healthy

 **Ocean Man:** Im kidding im kidding.

 **Ocean Man:** Probably.

 **Ocean Man:** I am.

 **Noodle Dude:** why are you so focused on this guy?? he's just a dick you met once in a coffee shop

 **Ocean Man:** I dont know. He rubs me the wrong way is all.

 **Noodle Dude:** :)

 **Ocean Man:** I am not attracted to him.

 **Noodle Dude:** sure sure

 **Ocean Man:** It could be the fact that his mother controls my source of income.

 **Ocean Man:** And could take away that income if her son says a single word to her. 

**Noodle Dude:** go to bed Neptune

 **Ocean Man:** And hes rich

 **Noodle Dude:** go to bed Neptune

 **Ocean Man:** And his hair is annoying.

 **Noodle Man:** im going to bed Neptune

* * *

Neptune spent two days in a coffee shop free bliss. He wasn’t scheduled until Friday, and until then he could lock himself up in his dorm and study without anyone bothering him. Thank god for a roommate in design who spent all of his time out of the room. He was falling behind on his homework.

No matter how social Neptune was, and here social meant flirtatious, being left alone was one of the natural pleasures in life. He liked his dark room. He liked the soft blue light of his computer screen. He liked not being annoyed. This was his element, and when he was in his element, he was focused.

He got to bed on time.

He got his work done.

He even got complimented by his teachers.

Everything was good.

And then he was back at The Daily Grind and Jaune wasn’t scheduled to work that day. And Sun was for sure coming in. And he dreaded every aspect.

“Let me guess. I’m on the cash register,” Neptune asked his coworker before he was even done clocking in.

“You got it.”

“Figured.”

Thankfully, after a few restful days, Neptune was on his A-game, meaning he could smooth talk the customers with ease.

“And what does a lovely lady such as yourself want to drink?” Neptune said and uncapped a sharpie with one fluid motion.

“You’re glowing in this autumn weather, by the way,” he would say as he took down a cup from a high shelf.

“What is someone as beautiful as you doing in a quiet place like this?” he asked and punched in numbers on his cash register with a pen.

Many pleasant smiles. Many quiet blushes. Neptune was good at what he liked to do.

Too good, maybe. Too many not-straight pretty boys with kind smiles and nice eyes being inexplicably drawn to a handsome barista’s dorm room and suddenly they were kissing, but oh no he was straight he swore.

And then more dates, nicer ones. Ones with movies and popcorn and dinners at places with chandeliers. And then more promises like, “We’re just friends,” and then the unavoidable, “Thanks I guess I’m not straight,” and Neptune was left alone with a bottle full of wine.

What time was it?

Neptune checked his watch. 3:15 PM. He just had to last for one more hour without moping around in self pity.

The door swung open with a little more force than needed and hit the wall with a soft thud. Some flyers tugged at the pins holding them to their cork board. A few studious classmates of his glanced up in annoyance as the bell jingled.

“Hello, welcome to the Dai-” -it was him- -”ly Grind. What can I get for you today?”

Stay calm. Don’t make any snide comments. Don’t say anything else at all. He was alone, wearing shorts and a tight T-shirt and flip flops, rubbing at the back of his neck with one hand and avoiding Neptune’s eye contact. It could be taken as ornery, which Neptune did take it as, but the twinge to his brow and the pout of his mouth made Neptune think if only for a second that he was embarrassed. Or sad. Or both.

God, why couldn’t he read this asshole’s face?

Not an asshole. Owner’s son. Calm.

“So, you’re working here today?” Sun asked, finally turning his eyes toward Neptune.

Neptune shouldn't answer him. “Yeah. It’s a part time job,” he said anyway.

“Well, yeah, but I’ve been in here the past couple of days and you haven’t been here. I get free coffee, you know?”

“So I’ve heard.” He should shut up. “What are you having today?”

“Sorry, by the way. And a grande white mocha.”

Neptune’s brain fizzled out for a split second. “What was that?”

One eyebrow rose to a degree Neptune didn’t think was possible. What the fuck was going on with this guy’s face?! “A grande white mocha?” Sun repeated, sounding bewildered.

“No, I mean-”

“I dunno. I didn’t mean to make you yell about how much you needed your job in a public coffee shop.”

Neptune stared for a moment. Sun broke eye contact a second in, choosing to fiddle with the hem of his GAINS NOT PAINS T-shirt instead. Neptune’s mouth tasted sour, but not out of anger with Sun. It seemed like embarrassment. Why would he be embarrassed?

Neptune rang him up in silence.

“Thank you,” he said and handed him his receipt.

Sun grinned and his eyes crinkled. He took the receipt between two fingers and leaned his body across Neptune’s counter, resting his head on one fist. “So, Italian, huh? You learn that to pick up girls?”

Neptune rolled his eyes. “My mom was born in Naples.”

Sun didn’t lose the smile. It got wider if anything. “But I bet it helps, right?”

“Your order is almost ready.”

“Right!”

Sun had to have given himself whiplash from how fast he bounced back upright and sprinted to the other side of the counter, snatching up his drink and whirling into an open seat by the window. Neptune covered his mouth, trying not to laugh. No laughing at this guy. That wasn’t allowed.

But… Apologizing was something Neptune hadn’t expected. Breaking eye contact, sure, but it was considerate to say the least. Considerate for a frat boy, he reminded himself.

A frat boy that was giving his phone a peace sign as he took a selfie. No wonder he was sitting by the window. Idiot.


	5. New Impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little more information gets found out, and Weiss has to be forcibly restrained from murdering Sun.

Sun came in every single day. His order was always the same- a grande white mocha -but his outfits varied from crop tops to tank tops to shorts to tight, tight jeans. Every aspect of every piece of clothing he owned seemed to share the same goal of showing off as much of his body as possible, even when that part of his body was covered. 

When he wore T-shirts, they were graphic with big bold text on them. One said REAL LIFE HORROR MOVIE. Another just read HOT BOY. He only seemed to have two pairs of shoes, which were flip flops and sneakers. He wore the flip flops more often, despite the quickly dropping autumn temperatures outside.

“Why don’t you try something new for once?” Neptune asked once while fixing Sun his daily regular.

He had gotten into the habit of leaning his entire body across Neptune’s counter while making his order. Sometimes propping up his head, sometimes just letting his arms drape over the edge. 

Today was a draping kind of day, apparently, because his entire body swayed from left to right as he thought of his answer. “Hmm. Good question! I’ll try something new. How ‘bout… Like a pumpkin spice latte or whatever?"

“Alright,” Neptune said and went to dump out the coffee he already made.

“No, you don’t have to dump it out! Just add the other thing into the first one!” Neptune felt his face twist into utter disgust. He just gave him the original, with nothing added.

Sun didn’t come in with dates anymore. He just ordered his coffee, ran past the counter at high speeds, swept up his coffee without looking, and swung into a chair near a window. Neptune would then watch him rack his brain for what selfie pose he should do that day.

He’d take the picture, then drink his coffee while looking at his phone. Every once in a while, he would bark a laugh at something he found funny, turning multiple heads at the loud noise, before going back to his ‘work.’ Weiss, who Neptune knew from some of his business classes, had all but ordered Jaune to evict Sun on more than one occasion.

Neptune honestly didn’t know how much longer it would be until Weiss took it upon herself to get Sun to stop “disturbing the peace” as she’d put it.

Sun had a habit of tipping back his chair. Once he leaned back too far and completely crashed onto the ground, spilling his coffee all over himself and generally making a huge racket. Neptune had thanked his lucky stars that Weiss hadn’t been there for once.

Once Sun caught Neptune looking at him take a selfie. He waved to him, giving him a cheesy grin. Neptune looked away.

It’d been three weeks since their first meeting and they hadn’t held an actual conversation other than little snippets of small talk, and for some reason that felt wrong. This guy was walking around thinking socks and flip flops were a good idea while also knowing about Neptune’s financial issues

Meanwhile, Neptune didn’t even know his last name. It felt weird. It made him uneasy. Was paranoid the right word?

And to make matters worse, Neptune still couldn’t read him.

Neptune prided himself on his ability to not only read a room, but to be able to read the faces in said room. He got a grasp on Jaune’s mannerisms within a day. All of his professors loved him because he could play to their exact emotions without them ever knowing.

But this fucking guy…

Some of his emotions were no brainers. Like the laugh. And the anger. And the confusion. But the in between ones… 

The ones where it looked like the regular Sun stepped away for a moment and revealed a completely different person. What the hell was he thinking during that time? Those expressions didn’t belong on the face of a rich frat boy.

“Neptune?” Jaune was tapping him on the shoulder.

Neptune fixed his posture. He had been leaning against his broom, apparently giving Sun a death stare from across the cafe.

“Did you get enough sleep last night?” He frowned and crossed his arms in a way reminiscent of his friend Nora. “Are you hungover?”

“No, I’m fine _mom_ ,” Neptune sighed.

“Okay, good. I have something to show you.” 

“What is it?”

“Nora found that guy’s Instagram.”

“Jaune?”

“Yeah?”

“Why the fuck?” he asked, bewildered. “And how the fuck does _Nora_ know about this guy?”

“She got bored, and you know how she gets.” Jaune shrugged and Neptune groaned. He did know how Nora got. The ginger had a habit of tagging along with her boyfriend, Ren, whenever he came to the coffee shop to study. Weiss _had_ succeeded in getting them to evict Nora on more than one occasion. She wasn’t exactly subtle, or quiet for that matter.

In other words, she’d probably get along with Sun like a house on fire. Neptune squinted at him. “You told her about him, didn’t you?”

Jaune had the worst fake-surprised face on the entire planet. “What? No! Of _course_ not! How dare you, Neptune Vasilias!”

“Jaune.”

“Okay, fine I told her. _Anyway!_ ”

He suppressed a laugh as Jaune pushed his phone up to his face. Neptune then pushed his glasses up and the phone back at least half a foot. Jaune didn’t seem to notice.

“First of all, he has over 3000 followers on a personal account,” Jaune began. “Second, it’s pretty much all selfies.”

“Unsurprising,” Neptune said and took the phone into his hands to keep Jaune from waving it around as he tried to read. He scoffed. “Wukong?! His last name is Wukong.”

“Hey you’re no one to judge Mr. _Vasilias_.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Neptune began to scroll through the pictures. They were all selfies, that was true. All in different places, never in the same place. Save for the weekly compilation posts captioned “this weeks coffee! <3” with every single selfie he took during that week there, at The Daily Grind.

“Holy shit.” Neptune was almost impressed. This took dedication. This took effort. This took a man who really admired himself.

“Okay, okay, but this isn’t what I’m talking about. Don’t be an ass.” Jaune snatched back his phone and scrolled to the top of his account. He whipped it back into Neptune’s face, tapping his finger on Sun’s bio. “Look!”

It read: 

sun wukong

Gains!

20

beacon university

“Oh my god,” Neptune muttered.

“Yeah. So, apparently the dude goes to our college.” Jaune took back his phone and pushed it into his pocket. “Nora maybe also stalked his page and apparently he lived in Vacuo for a while and just transferred back here to go to school. Which explains why we haven’t seen him until now. Didn’t you wonder why he was just suddenly here?”

“I’m going to be honest with you, Jaune. I thought maybe he might’ve just been a hellish entity that popped into existence one day to torture me.”

Jaune rolled his eyes. “Okay, well he’s clearly not. And please, you two haven’t even argued since that first time.”

“I have to put up with his dumb hair every day.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Neptune’s mouth felt dry. He leaned back against the wall. “So, what, is it fate telling us we have to be around each other as much as possible so we can hate each other that much more?”

“Or maybe it’s so you two can, ya know, get along?”

“Not gonna happen.”

Both of their heads turned towards the sound of a squeaky chair scratching against the worn hardwood floor. Sun stood up, still texting on his phone, and grabbed his empty cup with his free hand.

He looked up, and found Neptune and Jaune staring directly at him.

Sun frowned. “What’s up?” he yelled. More heads turned. Weiss glared at Jaune as if he was making this happen on purpose.

Neptune turned away, coughing. He grabbed the broom and began to brush at an already pristine floor.

“We found your Instagram!” Jaune bellowed back, holding his phone proudly over his head like a prize. In the corner, Weiss snapped a pencil in half from the force of her rage. Ren didn’t even look from his books.

Neptune, on the other hand, was sure he was going to have a stroke then and there.

A grin Neptune was becoming all too familiar with spread across Sun’s face as he pranced over to the counter. He quickly made himself at home on the surface, kicking his legs from his seat. His tank top said I FLEXED AND THE SLEEVES FELL OFF. 

“Oh, yeah? Like what you see?” Sun asked, winking at him. How was this Neptune’s life?

“Correction. Jaune’s friend found your Instagram and I was subjected to it,” Neptune butted in.

Sun flicked his eyes over to Jaune. “Your name’s Jaune? Do _you_ like what you see?”

“Stop flirting. He’s too good for you,” Neptune said and inched a little closer to his friend, starting to reach up and put a hand on his shoulder before stopping himself. Jaune remained looking blissfully oblivious, bless him. 

“Hey, Jaune, your boyfriend’s kinda a prick,” Sun laughed and gestured over at Neptune.

“I’m not his boyfriend,” Neptune said, crossing his arms.

“Okay, okay, jeez” Sun said, raising his hands defensively. He leaned back and his shirt rode up a little. Jesus, what was with this guy and crop tops? “So, you found my Instagram?”

“You go to the same college as us,” Jaune blurted, suddenly remembering how to speak. 

He said this at the same instant that Neptune said, “Sun Wukong really is quite the name.”

Sun blinked. “Sorry, what?”

Neptune was about to burst a blood vessel. “Jaune!” he hissed. Jaune was a great guy but… sometimes…

“What did I do?” he shouted, threatening to match Sun in volume.

“He doesn’t have to know that we go to the same college!”

“We go to the same college?” Sun asked.

Neptune failed to resist slapping a hand onto his face.

“Cool!” Sun said. “Why is that such a big deal, dude?”

“I don’t want you stalking me around campus, trying to be my friend!”

A smile spread slowly across Sun’s face, like moss creeping along a forest floor.

“Sweet Jesus.” Neptune shouldn't have said anything. Why did he say anything? Sun could _not_ be trusted with this power.

“Why can’t we be friends, Neptune?” Sun whined and dropped his entire body on the counter again. His shirt bunched against his torso as he over balanced and nearly tumbled over the side. It was probably a health hazard that Neptune would be forced to clean up.

Neptune would have to clean it up, because Jaune was clearly too amused by this entire situation to be any help at all. 

“Because we barely know each other. You’re just somebody I met on the job,” he explained. He felt not unlike a teacher having to explain that two plus two equals four to a student who was insisting it was actually twenty-two.

“Yeah, but that’s how friendships start out!” Sun insisted earnestly.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I’m busy.”

“Then I’ll wait until you’re not!” Sun said this like it was a sudden stroke of genius.

“You’re going to have to wait two more hours then.”

“Okay!” And with that, Sun stood to his full height, pulled his shirt down, or at least as far down as it even went. Then he walked back over to his chair by the window and pulled out his phone.

Neptune stared. No freaking way.

He tilted his head towards Jaune, eyes glared to Sun as his fingers tapped against his phone screen. “He’s just going to sit there until I get off work, isn’t he?”

“It seems like it,” Jaune said, just as focused.

“What the hell.”

“He’s determined, I’ll give him that.” Jaune sounded almost impressed. Thanks for nothing Jaune.

Ten minutes in, Sun seemed to get bored.

Thirty minutes in, his phone died.

Forty minutes in, he started pestering the other customers for a phone charger. Weiss was tearing her hair out.

Fifty minutes in, he just started pestering the customers, despite Ren giving him a charger in a vain attempt to shut him up. Weiss actually just got up and left at this point.

An hour and twenty minutes in, he was chatting up an increasingly bewildered Jaune.

An hour and forty minutes later, he was chatting up Neptune, to Jaune’s relief and amusement. Neptune longed for the sweet release of death, and wished that he could follow Weiss out the door and escape.

How many minutes were left? When could Neptune go home? When could he get the scent of Sun’s hair gel out of his nose? He feared his clothes would soon be coated with it if it was strong enough to permeate the terrible coffee.


	6. Potential Bonding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sun has a brilliant idea, Neptune wants to escape, and Jaune continues to be no help at all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating last week, it was finals but here's the chapter for now!

“When did you get this job?” Sun asked, picking at the counter absentmindedly. Neptune could feel Scarlet cringing at the state of Sun’s nails from wherever his roommate was. Maybe he should recommend a nail place.

“About a year ago,” Neptune said as he very casually picked up a cloth and began polishing a coffee machine. Maybe if he looked focused enough, Sun would go away. And go home. And leave forever.

“So you like it?”

“Not-” Owner’s son. “It’s fine.”

“What do you like about it?”

Neptune glanced up just in time to watch Sun’s eyes flick from half-lidded to wide and bright, irises twinkling. His cheek bunched up against the hand he was leaning it on. He gave Neptune a lopsided smile, and Neptune quickly shifted his gaze away.

Neptune picked an already-clean coffee cup. Not clean enough. Focus on something else. “Why are you still here?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been here for almost two hours doing nothing. Waiting for me.”

“Yeah! I said I would.”

Neptune paused. “Don’t you have anything better to do?” Neptune’s mind flicked to drinking, sports, parties. Whatever frat boys usually did.

“Not really. Plus, I have a friend to win over.”

A hand tapped Neptune’s shoulder. “Your shift’s done,” Jaune said, not even trying to hide his glance towards Sun. Betrayal. Complete and utter betrayal.

“Hell yeah!” Sun cried and pumped his fist into the air.

“Jesus Christ,” Neptune sighed and nearly dropped the coffee cup as he went to pinch the crease between his eyebrows. There was a steady headache slowly growing behind his eyes. He was so tired. He wanted to go home. He wanted sleep. He had homework to do. He didn’t have time for a friend.

There was a beat of silence before Sun coughed up one huff of a laugh before reaching over the counter and resting a hand the size of a shovel on Neptune’s shoulder. Freaking monster hands. “Listen, dude. If you really don’t want me around, I won’t bother you. I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything.”

Neptune bristled. Every single time he was sure he had this guy figured out, something like this happened. And the dude’s frat boy persona crumbled and he started showing faces and exhibiting emotions that Neptune couldn’t pinpoint. 

You come to a crossroads between two easily identifiable facial expressions. What road do you take?

If you’re Sun Wukong, you apparently just start wandering off path straight through the middle of them.

Neptune shifted from foot to foot. A breath. “No, no. No. I’m sorry. I’m just… exhausted from work,” he heard himself say.

“Aw dude. That’s gotta suck.” Sun was perched cross-legged on Neptune's counter again. Dear lord, he was like a freaking cat. Or a monkey. A monkey cat. Was that a thing?

“Yeah.” This felt weird. They were having a normal conversation and Neptune wasn’t annoyed. Something bad was about to happen.

“Well, I have a way to wake you up.” Even Jaune shifted apprehensively beside Neptune.

“There is a lot of coffee around us,” Neptune deadpanned, not getting what Sun was trying to say.

“What type of car do you drive?” he asked, sliding off the counter to return to leaning across it with his feet on the ground. Neptune didn’t know if this was an improvement or not.

“A bad one.”

“Okay, well, I have a Mustang. Do you wanna see who’s faster?” The grin. The eye sparkle. His fingers tapped on the counter. He bounced up and down on the balls of his feet and leaned close enough to Neptune’s face that he could count the freckles across his nose. He looked so excited, you could barely even tell that he was talking about doing something so, so illegal.

“Um, no? What the fuck?”

Sun melted down, expression included, until his chin met the countertop. He must’ve been perfecting that move for a while. It even made _Neptune_ feel a little bad. “C’mon, dude! We won’t get into any trouble,” he whined, staring up at Neptune with big blue eyes.

Jaune elbowed him in the side, and without even looking he could feel the glare. Neptune untied his apron and unhooked it from behind his neck, carefully folding it in his arms. “Maybe you wouldn’t, but we’re not all rich.”

Sun frowned at that. He stood. “If you do it, I’ll leave you alone.”

That got Neptune’s attention. “Really?”

“Neptune, don’t,” Jaune said, a warning inching into his tone. This was probably a bad idea.

“Neptune, do!” Sun said, pulling out his car keys and twirling them around his finger. Okay this was definitely a _really_ bad idea.

“And you’ll really leave me alone?”

“For sure.”

“If I just race you. One time.”

“One time.”

“Deal.”

“Neptune!” Jaune exclaimed, using an exasperated and disappointed tone that Neptune was sure he’d perfected over many years of being an older and younger sibling.

“What? I’m getting him out of our hair!”

“And probably getting arrested!” Jaune said, strangling the air in front of him.

Sun waved a hand in the air. “Nah man, it’ll be fine!” He turned to Neptune, his eyes lighting up. “Ready to go?”

Neptune set down his apron and took a deep breath. “Yeah, let’s do this.” Jaune’s face fell into his hands, and Neptune ignored him.

Sun did, in fact, drive a Mustang. A bright blue Mustang. A bright blue Mustang with the license plate H0TB0Y. Sun seemed to be very proud of it, judging from the way he brushed a speck of dust off the hood and tapped the black leather seats.

“It’s nice,” Neptune said.

Sun beamed. “I know, right?”

“Honestly, just by looking at it, I can tell it’s faster than my car.”

“Yeah? How?”

Neptune sighed and pointed across the lot. “That’s my car.”

Sun turned around and his shoulders sunk. It was an ugly shade of purple, first of all. Not bright enough to be gaudy like Sun’s, but not dull enough to be professional. 

Second of all, it was a Jeep, because that was the only thing he could get his hands on, even though he hated them. This meant he was extremely hot in the summer, and extremely cold in the winter.

To top it all off, there was a big dent in the bumper next to his non-vanity plate where a dick that had been fixing his hair in the mirror ran into him at a stop light then sped away before he could get in trouble.

With his luck, that dick might’ve been Sun.

“Hm,” Sun said and spun back around. His lips drew into a straight line and a flush spread across his cheeks. He blushed on his neck, too. Neptune hadn’t seen him blush before. “Hm, yeah, that’s unfortunate.”

What the fuck was _that_ expression?

“What?” Neptune asked and crossed his arms.

“Nothing, nothing,” Sun said. His eyes seemed to be trying to look everywhere except directly at Neptune.

“Spit it out.”

Sun did. He burst out laughing, doubling over with the force of it, grabbing at his stomach. Somehow, Neptune had forgotten how loud he was normally and how much louder his laughs were. He was sure that the customers inside would hear his howls and think a dog was being murdered outside.

“What?!” Neptune exclaimed.

“You… _You_ drive a Jeep?!” he shouted before breaking out into another fit of laughter. It was almost contagious, and if Neptune wasn’t so defensive of his car, he might’ve started laughing, too.

“It was the only thing available! I have to save all my money for college”

“Neptune, it’s _purple_!”

“You can’t talk! Yours is freaking _aqua_!”

Sun stood up straight, the laughter finally wearing off. “Hey, don’t talk mean about Ruyi Jingu,” he said, suddenly serious. He laid a protective hand on the hood of the car, “Blue is cool, and she’s very sensitive.”

Neptune stared at him. “You named your car. And _she_?!”

“You didn’t name yours?”

“You named your car.”

“You named your car Ruyi Jingu.”

“Yeah, what’s the problem.”

“Holy shit dude.”

Sun pouted at Neptune, eyes squinty, skin wrinkling around his eyes. “Anyway,” he said, as if there hadn’t been an interruption. “Yeah, I don’t think that there’s any possible way you could beat me.”

“Hey!”

“You said it first,” Sun said and grinned. “But how about we go for a ride anyway?”

That was not a normal smile. That was an evil smile. His brow furrowed and his smile stretched so wide Neptune thought his face might break. His eyes twinkled with mischief. _Evil mischief._

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s just ride in the same car.”

“What the fuck?!”

“What! We already agreed on doing illegal things! Why not just do them closer together?” He said this like it made all the sense in the world. Which it did not. It one hundred percent did not. And then he _winked_ , Jesus Christ on a bike.

Neptune raised an eyebrow. Sun was straight, right? Because what he was saying and doing did not sound or look like what a straight person would say or do.

“What’s the point if we’re in the same car?”

“The thrill!” Sun stuck out his hands and wiggled his fingers for effect.

“Excuse me?”

“Have you ever done anything fun in your life? Ever? Or have you always been a hardass?”

Neptune glared. Maybe if he glared hard enough, this blonde idiot would be vaporized on the spot, and he would be able to continue on with his life.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Sun grinned cheekily, and Neptune squawked in protest, stumbling over a defense before finally giving up. The closest he could come to acquiescence was rolling his eyes and nodding. He was going to regret this.

Sun didn’t care for his car as much as initially thought, seeing as he attempted to slide over the hood, fell off when he got to the edge, then leapt straight over the driver side door and plopped into the seat. “C’mon!”

“And you’ll leave me alone?”

“Totally, dude.”

“Fine.” He _already_ regretted this. Preemptively. How the fuck was that even possible? What he wouldn’t give for a lightning bolt to strike him down where he stood. He’d almost rather go _swimming_ than get into a moving vehicle with this maniac.

Almost. He wasn’t there yet, but he was getting close.


	7. Highway Skyline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They’re burning down the highway skyline, on the back of a hurricane that started turning when they were young.

Neptune made a point to carefully open the car door and get inside. The car was… Nice. Surprisingly nice. The seats were clean and smelled like lemons, the floor mats were spotless. No trash. No stains. Sun was checking his hair in the rearview mirror.

“Huh,” Neptune said, not fast enough to hide the surprise in his voice.

“What?” Sun asked, freezing.

“It’s nice.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“No beer bottles.”

“Wow, dude. I’m hurt, truly,” Sun said, pressing a hand to his chest in a facsimile of hurt. Or maybe it was real hurt. He could never tell with this guy.

Neptune supressed a laugh at his performance. He couldn’t afford to let Sun see him be happy. That would mean he was winning, and they  _ weren’t _ friends. Nope. Totally not.

“Ready to ride?” Sun asked with a smile that said danger.

“Just… here? We’re going way over the speed limit  _ here _ ?”

“It’s fine!” Sun waved him off, adjusting his mirror and shooting himself a grin in the reflection. “There are never any cops or pedestrians here. Don’t worry so much, Neptune!”

“I have to worry. That’s the only way you won’t freaking kill yourself.”

Sun laughed, and he did have a nice laugh dammit. A laugh that made you want to laugh along with him. Neptune barely restrained himself from doing just that. 

“Okay! Here we go!”

Sun was out of that parking space so fast, Neptune thought he might get whiplash. He stopped the car just as quickly, then started it up again before either one of them could get their bearings.

“Su- Su-” Neptune stuttered out between the breaks, his nails digging into the leather and his glasses threatening to fly off his face.

“Aw, see? We are good friends!” Sun called over the purring engine. “We’re already giving each other nicknames!”

“Shut up!”

The pavement screamed underneath them and Neptune watched his life zoom past. Oh, look, there went the time Scarlet knocked his head into the terrible birthday cupcake he got him and Neptune had sprinkles dropping out of his hair for at least a week.

Sun bucked the car onto the empty street and took off, wind tangling in his hair and eyes open wide. The trees turned into green blurs, the buildings into only smudges of paint on a blue backdrop.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Neptune yelled and promptly sealed his mouth closed. Air poured down his throat at top speeds and with it most likely a million bugs. No thank you, this was terrifying enough all ready, he didn’t need that.

The road bumped and threatened to make him bite his tongue off. And he needed that, thank you very much. For screaming, if nothing else. 

“You know, you sure do take the Lord’s name in vain a whole lot,” Sun said as casually as if they were out for lunch. He pulled out some sunglasses and tucked them into Neptune’s hair without even asking. Yellow reflective aviators. What had he really been expecting?

“I’m already Catholic! It’s fine!”

“I’m not really sure that’s how it works,” he said conversationally as he pulled on a pair of honest-to-God fingerless driving gloves. He was going to die. Forget getting in a crash, his heart was going to stop.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Neptune screamed. Sun had started fishing around in the space between the cupholders, and his face was turned  _ completely away from the road _ to do it. Neptune’s heart raced. Street signs smeared. Sun’s speed neared one hundred.

“It’s fine, it’s fine! Cool your jets, dude! I’m just grabbing some tunes!”

“We’re going to die!”

“Oh, so now we’re a we?” Sun quipped, winking at Neptune and still not even glancing at the road that his car was practically devouring.

“What the hell are you talking about?! Just keep your fucking eyes on the road, you absolute maniac, or I’m going to have an actual stroke!!” Neptune screamed, his lungs in his throat and his heart hammering in his chest. He was going to tear the leather upholstery with how hard he was gripping it.

Sun laughed. Laughed! Like they weren’t doing something highly illegal and could die at any second! “We’re not gonna hit anyone! Hey, dude, do you dare me to beat one-fifteen?”

_ “No!” _

More laughter. That laughter was going to be the last thing he ever heard.

Sun finally got what he was looking for. He wiped the CD (who still used CDs?) off on his tank top and popped it into the player. Big band jazz music blew from the speakers, the bass cranked up because of course it was. Still.  _ Jazz? _ Trumpetey, 1920s, New Orleans jazz?

“What the fuck is this?!”

“You really lose your censor when you’re out of work,” Sun said, leaning casually back into his seat, seemingly ignoring his hair flying in every direction from the wind, and facing directly towards Neptune to speak.

“No, I don’t! I think it’s the life or death situation I’m currently facing!”

“My driving isn’t  _ that _ bad,” Sun pouted, his eyes wide again. Damn those eyes, how dare they look like they’d been plucked straight from a noon day sky. 

“Shut the fuck up and stop giving me those puppy eyes! Keep your goddamn eyes on the- You almost hit that sign  _ watchoutwatchoutwatchoutwatchout holy fucking shit!!” _

Neptune’s face was suddenly freezing, what with all the blood draining out of it and all. His hand had made its way to his heart somehow, bunching up in the fabric, while his other arm pressed up against the car door as if that would help if they hit something. If he had a heart monitor on, it would read well over one hundred.

“Puppy eyes?” Sun asked, said eyes lighting up once again and that fucking grin spreading across his face.

No. Oh God no.

“It’s a thing you do, Shut up a-”

“You noticed a thing I do?” He sounded delighted. God fucking dammit, what the hell?! Neptune was having a fever dream. That was it. He was dying of a horrible sickness, and this was the torture his brain had conjured up for him.

“Dumbass! Holy shit!  _ Please _ just focus on the road!”

Sun sped up.

“No. No no no  _ nononono!!” _

“Yes yes hell fucking  _ yes!! _ ”

Neptune glanced over. Sun was grinning from ear to ear. A spot light that split the darkness. A smile for punching the sun, for setting off illegal fireworks just to have some color in the sky. A smile for street racing at unimaginable speeds just to bond with a barista he barely knew. 

“You’re actually planning on killing me,” Neptune panicked, at whatever could pass for a normal tone of voice in this death trap. “If this was a trick to kill me, congratulations, it’s fucking working!” 

Sun had the audacity to laugh. “I’m actually going to die in this neon blue convertible with a maniac at the steering wheel!” Neptune yelped, the calm demeanor his horrified realization had brought gone in an instant. 

“Wow, you’re morbid!” Sun laughed. “Chill out, dude! I just want to get a little air!” His grip tightened on the steering wheel and he leaned forward as if that would make them go faster.

“A little…?!”

Neptune un-squinted his eyes and focused on the road up ahead. Sure enough, there lay a steep hill that Neptune had somehow managed to forget about. How could he? He drove up it every morning and back down it every night. It made your stomach fly up into your throat even at regular speeds.

“This is suicide!” Neptune cried, gripping his seat belt tight enough to snap it right in two.

“Not if we don’t die!”

“If we don’t die, we get arrested! That’s not better! You get how that’s not better, right?!”

“How is dying  _ better  _ than getting arrested? Besides, there are never any cops here!”

“You’re insane!”

“We’re almost there!”

“I’m going to vomit! Seriously, I swear to Go-”

“Hold on!” Sun yelled, teeth bared in a face splitting grin and eyes bright with manic fire.

Everything in the car went flying, including its passengers. Miraculously, that flight was only an inch or so out of their seat and not through the windshield. Still, the experience of rocketing over a hill at hundred of miles per hour speeds while bass-boosted jazz blared out of the speakers was a unique experience that Neptune never wanted to repeat.

Neptune’s seat belt caught him as he threatened to fly overboard. Sun was cheering his head off, Neptune was too terrified for any sound to escape his throat. His voice seemed to have been left on the pavement below. 

There was a split second where he could have sworn that time froze and he was able to watch Sun’s huge eyes crackle with electricity and excitement. The red leaves of the trees on either side of the road swished with the new wind. The road beneath them blurred, the center lines losing all meaning. All within half a second.

But then their tires bounced once, then twice, and finally they were on the road again.

And Sun was grinding to a halt.

And swerving into a ditch.

He let the car turn completely sideways, pressing down hard into the brake. Dirt flew up around them along with clumps of grass and a few pieces of Neptune’s remaining sanity.

They lurched forward, then stilled.

And Sun hollered. “Holy  _ shit _ that was awesome!!”

Neptune’s voice returned. “Am I dead?” he asked, frozen stock still in his seat, too scared to move.

“Not yet, bro!”

There was silence for a moment. Then a laugh bubbled out of Neptune. And another. And he was grabbing at his stomach in an effort to control them.

“I’ve never heard you laugh before,” Sun chuckled.

“I guess,” -a laugh break- “I save them for near-death experiences!”

Sun giggled a little. Then he joined, too.

Both of them clutched their sides with the laughing, and the more Sun laughed the more Neptune laughed because his laugh was so infectious it was annoying, but Neptune couldn’t find it in him to be annoyed. It faded in and out from high pitched snickers through his teeth and tongue to deep roaring claps of thunder. Woodland pixie. Hearty ship captain.

“Why the hell do you have bright yellow aviators, dumbass? That’s so lame!” Neptune cackled, pulling them off his head and wiping tears from behind his glasses.

“Why the hell do you have blue freaking hair? Like, more blue than my  _ car! _ What the fuck?!” Sun pointed out before sputtering into more indistinguishable laughing.

They both slid down further and further into the leather seats, their shoes resting on the dashboard, the occasional putter of laughter from one of them sending both back into a laughing competition that their sides couldn’t handle anymore.

The wind messed up Sun’s hair. Bad. All that gel helped when it was styled correctly, but when Mother Nature had her way with it, it turned into a hot mess. Or just a mess. It splayed out around his head, combining with the straw yellow color and making his head look like he’d jumped into a haystack and a fan at the same time. The back just stood off his neck, straight up in the air like someone had just ordered it to attention.

He kept running his hands all through it. Like it helped. Neptune probably didn’t look that great either.

Sun’s chest was heaving with laughter and adrenaline, and there were bright pink spots high on his cheeks. His sparse freckles dotted under his flush and speckled like constellations across the arms brushing back his hair. Bright yellow hair framing eyes like drops of sky.

“Do you want me to take you back to your car?”

Neptune opened his eyes. Woozily, he addressed his surroundings. Sun was inches away from his face, eyebrows pressed together, one hand climbing through his messy hair. Had they been…? No. No stop. Neptune had just passed out from exhaustion and Sun was waking him up. That was all that had happened.

How late was it? The orange and pink shades of sunset scraped against the tops of the red-leaved trees that closed in around them. It shone through the gaps of the trunks in slats that blinded Neptune momentarily and lit up the flecks of gold in Sun’s blue eyes.

What was happening?

Sun just asked him a question. Focus Neptune.

“Uh. Yeah. Sure.” He thought for a second. Sun was still really close to his face, and for some reason his thoughts were moving more slowly than normal. He could count the individual freckles speckling his cheeks. “I won the bet.”

“It wasn’t really a bet. Just an agreement,” Sun murmured, his eyes flicking over Neptune’s face as if trying to memorize it.

“Sure, sure, but I survived.” He was too close. Why was he so close?

“Yeah,” Sun said, finally leaning back and rubbing the back of his neck almost sheepishly. “Am I really that bad of a driver?”

“Don’t make me start laughing again.”

Sun smiled bright enough to light up a dark room and clapped a hand on Neptune’s shoulder before starting up the car.

His hand was warm. Calloused and huge, and warm. Neptune definitely did  _ not _ glance down at it. 

Nope. Totally did not do that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is highkey my favourite chapter, if you don't mind me saying so


	8. After Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sun hasn’t shown up to the coffee shop in awhile, and Neptune might have caught slightly more feelings from their drive than he is prepared to deal with.

“I don’t like him, Jaune.”

“Really? Because after your little joy ride with him, you texted me freaking out about how you were admiring his beautiful hair and his beautiful eyes and his beautiful hands and-”

“Monster hands! Monster hands that need to see a nail salon. He probably just sticks them in his mouth and rips them off, God help me.”

“Hey! The point is, is that because you were scared about it doesn’t make those feelings go away.”

“They weren’t feelings! They were just observations that I overthought.”

“Really? Because now you’re asking where he is. And looking forlornly towards the door.”

Neptune was in fact doing both of those things. He leaned on a broom, peering past the pinkish autumn evening light and into the parking lot. Sun had stuck to his word. He hadn’t turned up at The Daily Grind since two weeks ago, the night of the race that wasn’t really a race.

Not in a million years did Neptune expect that idiot to stick to his word, and yet there he stood. Alone with Jaune. And annoyingly worried.

Neptune dropped his broom to the side and turned his gaze towards Jaune. His cheeks were puffed out in annoyance at a lock of hair that kept falling in front of his eyes. 

Neptune sighed and leaned even further onto the broom if that was even possible. “Look. I’ve seen how he handles his own well-being now and I’m not really set at ease by it. I haven’t seen him at school.”

Jaune crossed his arms. “You never saw him in the first place.”

“Yeah, but the deal was that he wouldn’t visit me here. At work.” Neptune ran a hand through his hair, fixing it in the reflective side of the coffee machine. “I assumed he would’ve tried to visit me at college.”

“Nah, I’m pretty sure his exact wording was ‘I’ll leave you alone.’”

Neptune snorted, glancing over at him. “Your Sun impression is awful.”

“It’s not that bad!”

“You sound like the Green Giant.”

Jaune hit him in the arm. Neptune winced. He always forgot that under his awkward nerdy exterior, Jaune was fucking strong as hell.

“Anyway!” he huffed, giving Neptune a look. The one where he  _ tried _ glaring but ended up smiling good naturedly through it. “So what if you like him? What’s the big deal?”

“He’s a dick.”

“Not really.”

“He’s straight.”

“You don’t kno-”

“He’s straight, Jaune,” Neptune said firmly.

“...Yeah,” Jaune sighed dejectedly.

“I’m not crushing on another straight guy. Not that I found him attractive in the first place. But even if I did, I’m done with straight guys. No thank you.” He said this with as much conviction as he could muster. Almost managed to convince himself.

“Neptune.” Jaune looked  _ incredibly _ doubtful.

“I’m fine.” 

Jaune put his hand on his shoulder in a gesture that would’ve been awkward and condescending if it had been coming from anyone else. “Dude, if you really care that much, try to find him at school tomorrow.”

“I don’t care,” he insisted, shrugging off his hand.

Jaune gave him another look. The one with his brow lowered and his hands on his hips in a move that  _ had _ to be adopted from one of his sisters. 

He shoved his hand into his apron pocket, his name tag attached upside down. Unintentionally, Neptune was sure. The flowers and smiley faces surrounding his name were a sure sign that at some point either Nora or Ruby Rose had gotten hold of it. Possibly both of them.

Jaune produced his phone. He swiped to messages, and cleared his throat, glancing meaningfully at Neptune.

“‘Jaune, help! I think I just thought Sun was hot!’” Out came his approximation of Neptune’s voice. It was lowered too far and sounded a little like he had a cold. He also used a surfer dude accent.

“That’s not at  _ all _ what I sound li-”

“I asked ‘what happened?’ like a good friend,” Jaune continued, flicking up his eyes from the phone. “You replied: ‘I don’t know! We jumped a hill in his bright blue Mustang and I started laughing because of the panic and then I passed out and I woke up and he was right by my face. I noticed his eyes and hair and hands and stuff. It was really weird and I don’t know what’s going on.’”

Jaune stared at him. Neptune stared back. He was silent. Then, “I was really tired, obviously, that doesn’t prove anyth-”

“I said,” Jaune interrupted. Neptune closed his mouth. “‘Wow, Neptune. That’s pretty gay of you.’ You said, ‘I know.’” He looked up at Neptune again, and tilted his head.

Too smug.

“I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Jaune snorted. “You sure weren’t.”

“Jaune!”

“What?”

“Stop smiling! I am not gay for Sun Wukong!”

“But you could be.”

“Oh my God.”

“Run to him, Neptune,” Jaune declared dramatically, doing an incredible impression of Nora.

“Remind me why we’re friends?”

“I act as a restraint on your personality.”

“Yeah right.”

Neptune pinched his brow, puffing out a sigh. “Jaune, please believe me when I say that I don’t like him.”

He glanced over at Neptune with narrowed eyes, scepticism painting every line of his face. Finally, he let out a breath and rolled his eyes, slipping his phone back in his pocket. “Fine! Fine. I believe you.”

“Thank you.”

“But when you two start making out in the backroom, don’t c-”

“Jaune!”

“Fine!” He nudged Neptune away from the counter before taking up residence beside him, planting his chin in his hands. “Then why are we still staring at the door?”

“It’s… Weird,” Neptune began at a crawl. “You would expect someone like him to just come in anyway. So why isn’t he?”

“Maybe because you don’t actually know him,” Jaune posited. “You met him like a month ago, and the only words you’ve exchanged were over shitty coffee.”

“Language, Jaune!”

“I can curse! Shut up!” he exclaimed, standing bolt upright and flushing pink. 

Neptune snorted. “Yeah, sure you can.”

“Besides,” Jaune sighed, plowing ahead despite the interruptions. “The only things  _ you’ve _ said about him were how he was the dick frat boy stereotype. People aren’t really stereotypes, man.”

“He is.”

Jaune glared at him. “No, he’s not.” He paused. “Probably.”

“Fine,” Neptune conceded, leaning against the back wall and crossing his arms. “He still doesn’t really seem the type to hold up his end of promises.”

Jaune shrugged. “Maybe he just likes you.”

“Jaune,” Neptune said, warningly.

“In a friend way.”

“Sure.”

“I’m being serious!”

“Oaky, okay.”

“Or in another way, hypothetically speaking, who knows right?” Jaune said, smiling cheekily and jumping away to dodge Neptune’s swipe.

Or he tried to jump away. All he  _ actually  _ managed to do was jump to dodge the hit, cheer in triumph when he succeeded, and then promptly slip and fall onto the ground anyway. After helping his coworker to his feet, Neptune sighed and leaned back onto the wall, raking his eyes over the coffee shop.

The coffee shop was nearly empty, the air filled with the aromas of coffee beans and caramel, yet somehow it still remained stagnant. The soft bass of the coffee shop playlist pumped through speakers overhead. 

The clacking of nails against laptop keys issued from Weiss’s distant corner. Calm light was streaming through the unopening glass cafe door, staining the floor with the colors of fall. He didn’t miss him. He was just bored.

As if reading his mind, Jaune’s expression softened and he said, “Dude, if you miss him-”

“I don’t miss him.” He might have responded slightly too quickly. But who was there to call him on it?

“Okay. If you’re  _ worried  _ about him…” Jaune amended, watching his face for any sign that he was going to get cut off. When Neptune said nothing, he plowed on. “...Just find him at school.”

“No.” No way. No freaking way was he going to voluntarily look for that idiot during the little free time he got.

“Why not?”

“I don’t want him to think we’re friends.” Neptune shrugged.

“Do you have friends?”

Neptune turned to him, expecting malintention to show up on his face. But no. It was just a gentle smile, curling blonde hair that didn’t stay put, and a smattering of freckles across his nose. A kind face. An approachable face. A face Neptune didn’t let anywhere near him for the first few months of knowing him.

“I have you,” he said, more sincerely than he thought himself capable of being.

Jaune rolled his eyes. “Besides me.”

Neptune thought for a second. Scarlet? Probably. Weiss? Less than probably. Most of the people he could maybe say he was friends with, they were really friends with  _ Jaune _ . He was friendly with many, flirtatious with more, but did he really have any  _ friends _ other than Jaune? “Not really,” he said finally, and more than a little sullenly.

“Yeah,” Jaune said and gave him a smile. A sad smile. Jaune wasn’t one to hide his feelings. Neptune hated pity even at the worst of times, but somehow Jaune was so genuine it made it okay. “Make some friends, dude. Please. He seems nice, and he has good intentions.”

“He does?”

“Totally. I’ve got a good sense about these things.”

“What about that Winchester dude?”

“We don’t talk about him, shut up.”

Neptune looked over at Jaune, still keeping his arms crossed. Jaune meanwhile, just looked hopeful. Like a puppy.

“Fine,” Neptune huffed and rolled his eyes. “But not for him.”

“That works for me!”


	9. Dorm Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search begins, and despite its rough beginnings, it ends up with optimal results. Or sub-optimal, if you asked Neptune.

Where was Neptune supposed to find a wandering frat boy in this giant school?

As soon as Neptune started looking, he realized just how little he knew about Sun Wukong. He knew he was twenty, he knew he went to Beacon, he knew he was tall. He was pretty sure he knew he was in a fraternity. He didn’t know what he majored in, what he liked, what he hated, if he was in any clubs.

Which meant Neptune was getting practically nowhere in his search.

He was freezing cold, too. The temperature had suddenly dropped overnight, letting the grass freeze over and puffs of breath crystallize in front of students as they walked to class despite October barely reaching its final stretch. It also let Neptune’s pants glue themselves to the metal bench he’d foolishly decided to situate himself on.

“This is stupid,” Neptune said, unwrapping his arms from around his torso and pulling his scarf more snugly around his face. “Why am I doing this?”

He was talking to himself.

Stop talking to yourself.

What would he even say? Hi, I was stalking you. Want to be friends? No. Plus he had already insulted Sun too many times to count.

This was really stupid. This wasn’t going to get Neptune anywhere, and it would probably only succeed in driving Sun away. He didn’t really care, anyway. Jaune had dragged him into this in the first place. The dude really could get him to do anything.

But not this, not forever anyway. He was leaving. This was pointless, and he had homework.

Light spiky hair in the corner of his eye, about to head into a building.

Neptune was up before he knew what he was doing.

“Hey, Sun?” he asked as his feet carried him towards the doorway. His arm stretched out, ready to tap him if need be.

He didn’t turn around.

“Sun!” he called again. His hand met his shoulder.

Sun turned around.

Not Sun.

His jaw was too square, his eyes dark grey, matching his hair. His expression was too sour. Definitely not Sun.

“Oh. Sorry,” Neptune muttered and recoiled his hand quickly.

Not-Sun scoffed and rolled his eyes, pushing through open the glass door to go inside.

“My mistake.”

Neptune kicked off his shoes and peeled off his bomber jacket, setting both near his dorm room’s door. Soft yellow light and pictures of home greeted him along with a mound of paper on his desk next to his computer.

He should take care of those papers. He should get to work. He should definitely stop worrying about the forced-friend Jaune was trying to give him.

Why was he worrying so damn much?

Neptune collapsed in his chair, pushed his glasses up, and rubbed at his eyes. It had been a long day. Making a fool of himself in front of a stranger, making a fool of himself in front of Jaune, making a fool of himself in front of himself…

He could make friends. Friends that weren’t a frat boy he chatted to over a counter at his workspace.

Was he a frat boy?

Work. He needed to do work.

Neptune scooped a pen into his fingers and tugged the first paper off the stack. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to what the header actually said. No. this was a final draft of a paper he already wrote.

He pushed it away.

Next paper. No. He had done that assignment already as well.

Next paper. Nope.

Next paper. Done.

Nope. This wasn’t happening.

He needed to use the bathroom.

Neptune pushed off from his seat and stood to his feet, a yawn bubbling out from him. It had been a weird day. He was in a weird mood. He needed to occupy himself with whatever he could to keep his mind busy.

His hand reached for the doorknob and pulled it open.

A hand was raised in front of him.

The hand quickly pushed its way to its owner’s neck, rubbing at the hair there. Straw yellow, and flaring in every direction.

Sun Wukong looked extremely surprised to see a very drained Neptune standing before him.

Sun was the first to speak. “Neptune! Bro!” he exclaimed loud enough for the entire hall to hear, arms spread wide and eyes creasing as his smile fought for room on his face.

“Ah-” Neptune began.

“Good to see you here!”

“Sun, wha-”

“It feels like it’s been ages!” Sun just kept plowing on with his over-enthusiastic greetings, not even letting Neptune get a word in edgewise to respond.

“What the fu-”

“What are you doing in this neck of the woods?”

“I need to pee.”

They both stopped. Neptune’s mouth wasn’t obeying him, apparently switched off by the shock of the moment and pushed to its limits by Sun butting in.

Nice reintroduction, jackass.

“I, um,” Neptune said quickly. “I live here. This is my dorm.” Nice save. Nailed it.

“Which you were  _ leaving _ to go to the bathroom.”

Before Neptune could respond, Sun popped his head right into Neptune’s dorm room, taking a wide look around at the mess before him. Messy floor. Messy desk. Messy bed. Oh Lord save him.

“You keep a tight ship, don’t you?” Sun said, shooting Neptune a sly glance.

“What? Stop looking! What the fuck dude-”

Neptune pushed against Sun’s chest in a vain attempt to evict him from his dorm room, but Sun braced himself against the door frame. Why was he wearing short sleeves? It was fucking freezing out! Why were his biceps the size of small golden retrievers?!

“The fairy lights are a nice touch. That’s a lot of books, dude, have you actually read all of those or are you just trying to look smart?”

“Get out!”

Neptune finally managed to muscle Sun out of the doorway, and Sun returned to his regular posture with slightly more ruffled hair.

“You look different when you’re not behind a counter,” Sun said, his clear blue eyes giving Neptune a once over. He suddenly remembered he was wearing a stretched-out sweater and sweatpants with stains on the hem from where they dragged on the ground. A little too big on him. He looked disgusting. Who let him go out like this?

“And you look very much the same,” Neptune said, and tried to make the drunk English professor look work.

“Haven’t seen you around in a while,” Sun said. The smile didn’t leave his face. Neptune let himself wonder if it hurt to smile that much or if his face muscles had just gotten used to the insane amount of stress.

“Yeah. That was part of the bet. Deal. Arrangement.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“I honestly didn’t think you were going to keep your word.”

“What? Why?”

Neptune paused as he watched Sun’s eyes turn melty, starting to morph into the puppy face he liked to use. An ounce of compassion began to bleed into Neptune’s cold exhausted bones. He shook it off and tilted up his chin. “Because our first interaction was you screaming and threatening me. I didn’t believe you were the most rational person in the world.”

“Right! I forgot all about that,” Sun said, slipping out of the puppy-posture and instead letting out another laugh. “I thought you were an asshole, dude. Well, I mean…”

“Don’t try it, dude.”

“I’m just saying you’re kind of a tight ass,” Sun said and shrugged, crossing his arms. An mischievous smile spread across his face. “Except when you’re hungover.”

Neptune bristled in spite of himself. Why did he have to bring up their first meeting? Why? “That was an outlier. Doesn’t count.”

Sun stepped forward and pressed a finger against Neptune’s chest, not so much accusatory, more mocking. He literally knew nothing about personal space. Neptune could smell his cologne. “You totally said I was hot. Like, twice!” 

It would be easier if Sun didn’t have to sound so absolutely delighted about it. “My eyes were blurry.”

“Nonono, you said my pecs were nice.” He lowered his hand, but decided to trade that out for leaning closer to Neptune’s face and  _ winking _ . “Honestly, I mean, they deserve to be complimented.”

Jesus Christ.

God, Neptune wanted to wipe that fucking smile off his face. God, he was such a fucking idiot. Not even Neptune knew if he was referring to Sun or to himself when he said that. 

The hall that his dorm was in wasn’t known for having the best heating system, but he suddenly didn’t feel the chill anymore.


	10. New Contact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nobody is immune to pure unadulterated Wukong charm. As much as Neptune seems to think that he is.

“You’re disgusting,” he protested in a desperate attempt to draw Sun’s attention away from how his cheeks were burning. And in a vain attempt to keep himself from just staring at Sun. Keep the conversation going. Jesus Christ, just keep talking.

“Not according to you!” 

Neptune scowled in an attempt to make Sun flinch. The light still glimmered in Sun’s eyes, extremely contagious and concerningly charming, he had to admit. Neptune could feel his resolve slipping. No. Stay strong. _Stay strong, dammit, not like this._

Finally, Sun leaned out of his face, and Neptune inhaled after apparently holding his breath. Jesus fucking Christ. “Why were you so drunk that day anyway?” Sun asked.

Neptune’s mouth dried up. No way he could tell him something that personal. Time to step back a little bit, back into Cool Guy™ persona.

But Jaune. But friends. Dammit.

He bit his lip, glanced at the ground. Swallowed. Tried to make it look like he _hadn’t_ just swallowed. “I… Got dumped basically. By a guy I liked. I think I had the wrong idea.”

Sun’s brows lowered against his eyes, his mouth formed a straight line. He didn’t break eye contact, but the light disappeared. Even on Sun Wukong’s face he could read that expression: pity.

He should’ve kept his mouth shut and closed himself off like he’d first thought. Now Sun thought he was soft. Softer than he already thought he was. He straightened his shoulders and looked off to the side to compensate. Brush it off, brush it off.

Sun opened his mouth and Neptune braced for impact. Instead, Sun said, “So you _are_ gay?”

Neptune looked up. “What? No!”

“But you just said-”

“I can like guys and girls, dude!”

Sun raised his hands up to protect himself from Neptune’s wrath. “I know, I know, just teasing! Well anyway, he’s probably a huge dumbass if he left _you_. And made you get that completely wrecked.”

Neptune squinted, trying to peer into the expression laid out before him. Not pity. Not pity? His expression hadn’t changed much from before, but for some reason he saw something completely different there. No sense of ingenuine emotion, but…

“You’re so goddamn hard to read!” Neptune grumbled.

“What?”

“You get these strange faces. It’s like your face is made of rubber or something! I cannot tell what the hell you are thinking to save my life.”

“Huh?”

“A frat boy should not be using those weird facial cues.”

“Hey!” Sun exclaimed and _again_ his face shifted. Not anger more… offended? “Why’d you think I was in a frat?”

Neptune was taken aback. Another way he wasn’t able to read the guy?! Come what the hell, this wasn’t fair!

“You might as well have ‘frat boy’ tattooed across your forehead with how much you’re stealing their look,” Neptune explained, glancing him over. “The flip flops in negative a billion temperatures,” he gestured towards Sun’s feet, “the cropped tank top, the word “SWOLE” on said cropped tank top, the insanely styled hair-”

“Hey, hey, you can’t judge me on that bit, not with what _your_ hair does," Sun interrupted, scrambling to come up with a defense.

“Yeah, but I do it _nicely._ You just look like you put some gel in your hair at night and hope for the best the next morning.”

Sun pouted and refused to make eye contact.

“Oh my God. Is that actually what you do?!”

“Maybe! You don’t know!”

Neptune stood dumbstruck, staring at the pouty mess of a man in front of him. His shoulders were climbing towards his ears, his arms crossed in front of him. Neptune let out a laugh, then immediately tried to cover it up with his hand.

“You’re so-” Cute, he almost said. Not that word. Not the word he was about to say. “Dumb!” he eventually concluded, leaving a hopefully inconspicuous amount of time between the beginning and end of that sentence. 

Saved it. Barely. What was he _thinking_ almost saying ‘cute’ of all things? Where the hell had that come from?

“Hey! I got you to laugh!” Sun said over Neptune’s suppressed laughter. “Two points for Sun Wukong!”

“Fuck off! It doesn’t count if I’m laughing at you!”

“Sure it does!” Sun beamed so brightly the tips of his ears turned pink, and his eyes sparkled. His laugh was infectious, still, and somehow better than the last time he heard it.

More horrible thoughts hit Neptune. Thoughts that totally weren’t his, and thoughts he didn’t even want to even acknowledge. Stop thinking, stupid traitorous brain. Stop laughing, no matter how contagious Sun’s laugh was. 

Stop looking. _Seriously_ stop looking. God above, how the fucking hell were his eyes _that blue?!_

After the laughter, and his temporary insanity, finally subsided, Sun asked, “Am I really that hard to read?”

“Sorry?”

“My facial expressions or whatever.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess.” Neptune shrugged.

“And you can usually tell what people are thinking, but not me.”

“Usually.” Where was he going with this?

“Well maybe I’m just special!” That damn wink again.

“Fuck off.”

Sun sobered up. He considered for a moment, his shoulders lowering and his face having an almost pensive expression. Or was it sad? Angry? Oh who fucking knew anymore. “Well, I was thinking what I said earlier. That the guy you liked is a huge dumbass and an asshole.”

“Very eloquently put.”

Sun scowled before brushing it off. “I mean, you deserve better than a dumbass and an asshole.” He paused, watching Neptune with one of those unfathomable expressions again. “Especially if he made you get that hammered.”

“Well, he didn’t make me. That was my own choice.”

“Still! Pick better dates.”

Neptune rolled his eyes. “Okay.”

“Seriously!”

“Fine, okay.”

“Neptune.”

“What the fuck? Are you going to approve my dates or something?”

Sun’s eyes brightened, accompanied by the now familiar mischievous smile. “Great idea! I can review all your potential dates from now on.”

“No- I- What the hell?!”

“It’ll be great!”

“Sun!”

“Hey, wanna hang out sometime?”

Neptune paused, thrown by the sudden subject change. Talking to this guy was like driving with him. Who knew what was going to happen next, and he always felt he was being jerked around. “Sorry?”

“I mean, we finally saw each other outside the coffee shop. And we’re kinda sorta maybe friends, right?”

“Sure?” Neptune had to concede this point to Sun. They were at least more friends than he was with most people.

“Alright, it’s settled then. Give me your number.”

“What?”

Sun proceeded to stick his hand in Neptune’s pocket, steal his phone, then push it into Neptune’s hand. “Type in your password.”

“What… the fuc-”

“Do it!”

Somewhat on autopilot, Neptune typed in his password. Sun snatched it back and typed in his number, then sent a text to himself. He pushed the phone back into Neptune’s hands. 

“All set!”

“What the hell just happened?” He was bewildered, but he noticed absently that Sun had put himself into his contact list as ‘Monkey King’ with a truly obscene amount of emojis. Because of fucking course he did.

“When are you free?”

“Do you literally have no concept at all of personal space?”

“That’s what Blake always says, you’ll get used to it best buddy. I’ll just text you the dates I’m free,” Sun said and started to walk away.

“What the _fuck_ , Sun?!”

Sun turned his head and stuck out his tongue as he ran off down the hallway. Neptune realized that he was still standing frozen outside of his dorm room.

He suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to go back into his room and then never leave it again.


	11. Allies And Betrayals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neptune’s roommate has been appraised of the situation, for better or for worse. Currently, Neptune is going with worse.

“I thought Jaune was turning into your psychiatrist, why am I the one doing this?” Scarlet complained as he dipped his brush in the nail polish and painted on another layer. Bright sky blue. Like Sun’s eyes. Nope, don’t think about that. “Shouldn't you get an actual psychiatrist?”

“Yeah, well,” Neptune sighed. He propped up his head on one fist, spreading the other out before him as his roommate painted on the color across Neptune’s nails. “You know I’m broke as hell. And Jaune is at his sister’s this weekend.

“Nice to know I’m the fallback plan.”

“And you like drama.”

“That’s fair.”

It had been three days since the Sun Incident and two days since Neptune last went to work. Also two days since Neptune had left his dorm. Two days since he had _cleaned_ said dorm, and the place was an utter wreck. Food containers everywhere, papers scattered across his bed, clothes all over the floor.

“Scarlet, tell me to clean my room.”

He paused mid brush stroke. “Why?”

“Look around you! It’s disgusting. And you’re my roommate, isn’t it your job to yell at me about this stuff?”

“It is, thank you for acknowledging that, but it’s not _my_ room, so _your_ room is fine.”

“No, it’s not!”

“You have one empty water bottle on your desk, and one pair of pants on your floor. Believe me, this is nothing. You should see Sage’s room.”

“I need to get outside.”

“Wasn’t this how we started this talk?” Scarlet asked knowingly, his accent catching on the words and lilting them slightly.

Oh right. That’s why Neptune was holed up inside.

He lived every waking moment in fear of seeing Sun. After the disaster that was the re-meeting and planning the possible hang out session, Neptune hadn’t heard anything from him, and somehow that was worse. 

He could be tackled the second he left this room. Sun could flood his phone with texts in the middle of class. He could pop out of nowhere, take his hand, claim they were going to get matching tattoos, and shove him into a car.

Sun Wukong was easily the most chaotic maybe-friend that Neptune had ever had. And he was nowhere near prepared.

“Oh, yeah,” Neptune continued. “I actually just remembered that I never need to leave this place again.”

“Neptune, this isn’t how you make friends.”

“Oh not you, too. Please don’t tell me Jaune has gotten you involved in his little crusade,” Neptune groaned rolling his eyes.

“Maybe he has, maybe he hasn’t. Who’s to say. This still isn’t the right way to go about being friends with this guy.”

“Yeah, well, not fulfilling texting promises isn’t a way to make friends either!” Neptune pouted. Not that he _wanted_ to be friends with Sun. It was just the principal of the thing. Yeah that was it. Scarlet didn’t look convinced. 

“He’s probably just loving the idea of catching me at just the wrong moment. Like, when I’m on a date with someone he’ll blow up my phone with kissy emojis. Or if I’m in the library, he’ll find me and just tackle me into a bookshelf.”

“You’ve been thinking a lot about this.” Scarlet smirked, his tattoo wrinkling around his eye. 

Oh god not him, too. “It’s not like that, man. I keep telling Jaune it’s not like that, and I swear to God it’s not like that.”

“Okay, okay, okay. Sure. Other hand.”

Neptune sat up straight, taking back his freshly painted hand and offering up the other one for Scarlet. His roommate shook the bottle with a little too much aggression. “Neptune. You promised Jaune you would make some friends. Do it for Jaune.”

Neptune winced. Now Scarlet and Jaune were communicating. His life would never know peace after this moment. “Jaune isn’t even here. You don’t get to use _him_ as a tool to guilt me.”

“I had to.”

“Yeah I’m sure you did. He’s just… A lot.”

“He’s nice.”

“You’ve never met him! And he’s loud.”

“Passionate.”

“He wears _really_ bad T-shirts.”

“Now _that_ is unforgivable.”

“And why hasn’t he texted me? I don’t even think he likes me.”

Scarlet froze in the act of brushing paint onto one of Neptune’s nails. “You’re worried about him? And you’re worried that he doesn’t _like_ you?!” Scarlet’s smile was an evil smile. Curse him. “You’re blushing.”

Neptune flushed. “No I’m not! And I don’t care if he likes me! Because I don’t like him!”

“Yes, you do! You definitely do!”

“Scarlet!”

“A beautiful relationship is beginning, I can tell.”

“You’re worse than Jaune.”

“Hey!” Scarlet swatted his shoulder without much force, then tossed his head to get his hair out of his eyes. “Fine, fine. I’ll lay off. Why don’t you just text him first?”

“We’re not having this conversation. This isn’t fucking highschool, dude.”

“You’re the one being a little bitch about it, Neptune! Just be a man and text your potential boyfriend!”

“He’s not my boyfriend!”

Scarlet swatted at his shoulder a couple more times. “You’re so immature! Fine. If you won’t text him, I will.” With that, Scarlet leaned across Neptune and started grabbing for his phone.

It took Neptune a few seconds to realize what was happening as Scarlet searched the bed behind him without any hint of grace or subtlety. As soon as he let out a small “Ah ha!” Neptune’s eyes went impossibly wide and he yelped and shot towards Scarlet’s hand.

Just as his fingers were about to touch the sheets and his phone, Scarlet said, “Your nails are still wet!” A diversion tactic.

But it worked. Because Neptune immediately drew back as if he had just touched an open flame.

His roommate held his prize over his head, smirking slyly and staring straight into Neptune’s eyes. Neptune was busy holding his hands awkwardly in the air in front of him to prevent his nails from touching anything. 

“I know you don’t believe me, but I will kill you.” Scarlet raised one eyebrow, clearly doubtful. “I swear to God, I will take one of your shitty pirate swords, and I will kill you. I’ll do it. I know where you sleep.”

“First off, no you won’t. Second, my cutlasses are incredible and how dare you insult them.”

“I will kill you. And no, they’re lame.”

“They are not, but whatever,” Scarlet brushed off, settling against the pillows to type. ‘Sun,’” Scarlet started, his nails clicking on the screen. “No. Too impersonal. Needs a nickname for your _man_. Sunny. No wait.” A wicked smile spread across his face. “Sunshine.”

At this point, Neptune leapt forward again, arms swinging wildly, but Scarlet darted off the bed and out of the way. “Hi!’” Scarlet continued, reading stiltedly as he typed. “I just wanted to text you about when we were hanging out because I was getting super worried L-M-A-O.”

“Scarlet! I’m going to murder you!”

“Don’t jerk around so much. You’re going to make the polish fall over.”

Neptune risked a glance down and saw the open blue nail polish tilting dangerously from side to side. He snatched it up, screwed the top on securely, and set it on the floor. This, of course, only gave Scarlet more time to type.

“We can do whatever you want, exclamation point winky face. Whatever you want.” He paused. “I added like five A’s to that ‘whatever,’ by the way.”

“ _Scarlet!_ ” Neptune went to tackle him again, but he stuck out a hand and planted it on his forehead like an older sibling. 

“Get back A-S-A-P. Your bestie, Neptune. Okay, I sent it.” Scarlet released his head and Neptune’s momentum carried him down onto the bed sheets. Scarlet’s laugh sounded borderline demonic when muffled by all the blankets. Full Bond supervillain.

“What the fuck, dude?!” Neptune exclaimed, pushing himself up out of the blankets.

“Nothing was getting done,” Scarlet shrugged, looking thoroughly unbothered. “You can thank me later. Here’s your phone.”

Just as Scarlet tossed Neptune his phone, it vibrated. Neptune tried to shake off his irritation, furiously tamped down his excitement at Sun responding, and pressed his phone up to his face. His stupid glasses had fallen off in the struggle, and the stupid tiny words were too tiny.

* * *

 **Monkey King:** yeah sure dude im down!!! i have a great idea for what we can do

 **Monkey King:** meet me outside your dorm in an hour bring ur phone its imporant

 **Monkey King:** *important

 **Monkey King:** nicknames are a go btw?? hell yea boi!!!!!

* * *

“He doesn’t have autocorrect turned on,” Neptune said numbly. He was in shock.

“Who the hell does?” Scarlet asked from over his shoulder.

“I do.” Neptune glanced at him before elbowing him away. “Don’t read my texts, man!”

Scarlet crossed his arms. “Hey, I sent the messages. I should at least get to read the response.”

“I didn’t ask you to text him in the first place!”

“Well, at least I got things moving. If I’d left it up to you, nothing would have ever happened. You would have just languished in here until I’d have to call the RA’s to drag your body away.”

“Holy shit,” Neptune nearly dropped his phone, a look of horror spreading across his face.

“What?” Scarlet stopped negging him for once. “What’s wrong?”

“I only have an hour to get dressed!”

“Oh _shit_.”


	12. Data Acquired

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scarlet meets Sun and realizes some things that are blatantly obvious to him if that aren’t obvious to his roommate. Neptune, meanwhile, wishes nothing more than to crawl into a hole and die.

“Look at my hair!” Neptune gestured wildly to the absolute mess sitting atop his head. “This takes time, as you very well know!” he yelled, scurrying off the bed and immediately yanking open his drawers to pull together a somewhat sensible outfit.

“You know, Jaune would probably say ‘Don’t worry Neptune! Friends don’t care if their friend’s hair is messy!’” Scarlet remarked offhandedly.

“Well, I care!”

“Yeah, I don’t blame you. You do look like a hot mess.”

“Oh thanks for the vote of confidence, dude,” Neptune snapped, tugging on a pair of pants while hopping on one leg. All he succeeded in doing with this maneuver was toppling to the ground while Scarlet laughed.

With Scarlet’s help, he finally got into an outfit that didn’t look like he’d just rolled out of bed. “He’s late,” Neptune grumbled, arms crossed.

“One minute late,” Scarlet sighed from beside him.

“He said give him an hour.”

“No one means _exactly_ an hour, Neptune. We can’t all be perfectly on time.”

“Should I seriously wear this?” Neptune asked, gesturing vaguely at his shirt. “I look obscenely gay.”

“I like the flower print. Why? Do you think he’s going to ask you about it?”

“Is it bad? Should I change?”

“Neptune, I was just teas-”

“It’s bad, you’re right. I’m gonna change.” 

Luckily, just as Neptune was spun around to walk back into the room, an echoing voice down the hall yelled, “Neptune! Bro!”

And five seconds later, a large hand clapped onto Neptune’s back, forcibly turning him around.

Sun looked… clean. Weirdly clean. An-effort-was-put-into-his-look clean. What the effort might have been for, Neptune could not guess in a million years. It escaped his notice that he’d also put in similar effort for this “event,” but surely that was unrelated.

His hair was messy, it was always messy, but it looked like more thought was put into the chaos than usual. Like, maybe he tried a couple times before he got the windblown look exactly right.

His shirt wasn’t horribly wrinkled, though it did say “I’M HERE (YOU’RE WELCOME)” in that same horrible impact font and it, again, had no sleeves. He wore board shorts, because of course he was, but somehow, someway, he was not wearing open-toed shoes. Instead adorning his feet were pristine black and yellow converse, either newly bought or newly dry cleaned.

Neptune had to admit that he was impressed.

“Wow,” he began. “You look-”

“This is the first time I’ve seen you out of your work clothes!” Sun yelled, effectively cutting him off. “You do have a sense of style, I could tell.”

Neptune frowned. “Is that because of the gay thing.”

“Bi thing. And no, I think it was because of the hair. Or the glasses.” Sun raised an eyebrow, a cocky smirk pulling at his face as he began to turn around, arms extended as if to show off what he was wearing. “It’s nice to find someone with comparably good taste in clothes.”

Neptune grimaced in distaste. “My sense of style is _not_ comparable to yours.”

Sun slapped his hand back onto Neptune’s shoulder. “Oh, you look great, don’t sell yourself short!”

Before Neptune could object to this, he was being pulled into a very tight hug, complete with manly man thumps on the back.

Neptune couldn’t bring himself to hug back, but he could apparently bring himself to notice how warm Sun was. And of course how he could feel every single muscle in his arms.

Scarlet appeared in his peripheral vision, giving Neptune a thumbs up. Thanks for nothing, man.

Finally, Sun released his captive, still gripping his shoulders on either side, still smiling like a madman. “You know, I was a little afraid that we were never actually gonna hang out! You waited, like, two whole days before texting me at all!” He was pouting now, eyes wide in that stupid puppy dog look.

“Isn’t that proper etiquette?” Neptune asked carefully, deciding not to mention that it was actually Scarlet who had texted back, and that if it had been left up to him, maybe there would _never_ have been a second contact.

“Maybe for dates, but not for friends!” Sun slid to Neptune’s side, and slung an arm over his shoulders. “Unless this is a date, handsome.” And a wink, always with the damn winking.

Neptune laughed, not nervously, never nervously, and shrugged off the arm. “Not a date, you wish. Just doing… something. What are we doing again?”

“Oh! That’s right. It’s a surprise.” Sun wiggled his fingers, as if somehow that added to the mystery.

“Wow,” Neptune deadpanned, fighting the urge to laugh at this giant child. Can’t let him know that he was actually amused by his antics, that would be admitting defeat.

“You two have fun! Just text me when you get back, Neptune,” Scarlet called. He had apparently been edging himself down the hallway while thie interaction occurred, and suddenly Neptune panicked.

Jesus, God. He was about to be left alone with this madman.

“Oh!” Sun spun around, stepping towards Scarlet and capturing one of his hands in two of his. “I didn’t see you! You know Neptune?”

“Yes, I’m his roommate, Scarlet,” he said. He was tracing his eyes up and down Sun, as if sizing him up. Neptune felt torn between rolling his eyes in amusement at the look of delight on Sun’s face upon meeting a new potential friend, and horror at what the _fuck_ Scarlet was doing, and not even subtley at that.

“Nice to meet you, Scarlet!” Sun exclaimed, shaking his roommate’s arm hard enough that Neptune thought it might fall off.

“Likewise,” Scarlet said, prying his fingers out of Sun’s vice grip. “Nice one, Neptune,” he shot over Sun’s shoulder to Neptune, who was still standing frozen in mortification. Scarlet’s eyes took one last look up and down Sun, who blessedly seemed not to notice. “This one’s a keeper.”

“Scarlet!” Neptune hissed, flushing as red as his roommate’s hair. 

Just at the same moment, Sun rubbed the back of his neck and grinned. “Aw thanks, dude! I try.”

“Just bring him back to me in one piece, alright?” Scarlet asked Sun, shooting Neptune an incredibly knowing look. How dare he. This was betrayal of the highest order.

“Can do!” Sun said and twirled back to Neptune. He moved so constantly that it was almost dizzying to look at. Neptune began to feel ill and fought to get the flush out of his cheeks. Sun grabbed Neptune’s hand, leading him away. “It was great meeting you! Come on bro, let’s go!”

“Agh, Jesus, you haven’t even told me where we’re going!”

“It’s a surprise!” Curse the delight in his voice, how dare he sound so excited about potentially kidnapping him.

Neptune caught Scarlet’s eye as he was dragged away. He was leaning in the doorway of their shared room, arms crossed and one eyebrow raised sardonically. 

_‘Help me!’_ Neptune mouthed at him.

He was yanked around the corner before he could get a response in return.

Sun was blathering away, talking about nothing and generally making a huge ruckus. Neptune’s phone buzzed in his pocket and he fished it out as best he could while being yanked down a hallway by an excitable child.

* * *

 **Red Rackham:** You said he was tall, you never said he was cute

 **Ocean Man:** Dude what the fuck?!

 **Red Rackham:** Hey, I’m just telling it how it is

 **Red Rackham:** Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, you two lovebirds ;)

 **Ocean Man:** Theres nothing you wouldnt do!

 **Ocean Man:** And we are not lovebirds!

 **Red Rackham:** Sure you’re not

 **Red Rackham:** I’ve only seen you have one conversation, and you two were acting like an old married couple

 **Red Rackham:** He even tried to get all spiffed up for your little date, it’s adorable

 **Ocean Man:** It is not a date!

 **Red Rackham:** Bullshit

 **Ocean Man:** And he is not adorable

 **Red Rackham:** Bull

 **Ocean Man:** Were not even friends!

 **Red Rackham:** Shit

 **Ocean Man:** Come on man dont be like that

 **Red Rackham:** I think he likes you

 **Red Rackham:** He was flirting with you hardcore

* * *

Neptune froze. Or he froze as much as he could while getting tugged down a stairwell by a giant with volume control issues. 

Neptune had long since tuned out of whatever conversation he was having with Sun, but luckily Sun was talking loudly and enthusiastically seemingly without needing any input from him. He was waving one of his hands around excitedly as he talked, but not both.

Sun was still holding his hand.

His phone buzzed.

* * *

 **Red Rackham:** Earth to Neptune, come in Neptune

 **Ocean Man:** You really think he was flirting with me?

 **Red Rackham:** Oh I know so

 **Red Rackham:** He said you looked great, complimented you at every turn

 **Red Rackham:** The man could not keep his hands off you

 **Ocean Man:** Thats just what hes like with everyone it doesn’t mean anything.

 **Red Rackham:** Neptune

 **Ocean Man:** It doesnt mean anything!

 **Ocean Man:** And even if he was flirting with me.

 **Ocean Man:** Which he is not.

 **Ocean Man:** Its not like I have a crush on him so it doesnt matter.

 **Red Rackham:** Whatever you say

 **Red Rackham:** Have fun on your not-date-totally-a-date

 **Red Rackham:** I have to update Jaune, he needs these deets

 **Ocean Man:** Scarlet I swear to god you better fucking not!

 **Ocean Man:** You better not be texting Jaune.

 **Ocean Man:** Scarlet?

 **Ocean Man:** Oh god fucking dammit.

* * *

With his roommate abandoning him, and the very real idea that he might be getting into cahoots with his coworker to cook up some sort of horrible plan based on very untrue accusations, Neptune felt fear of the likes of which he’d never felt before.

He barely even noticed Sun holding the door of his car open for him to get into. He definitely didn’t notice the too-fond looks Sun kept shooting at him as they drove too many miles over the speed limit and Neptune panicked.

Sun only let go of his hand to drive. Neptune wondered behind the panic of the drive if his heart was racing from the high speeds and the wind rushing through his hair, or if it was from how Sun seemed unable to stop himself from glancing expectantly over at Neptune every time he made a joke or a sly comment.

Or if it was how Sun’s cheeks flushed and his eyes twinkled with delight whenever Neptune shot back with snark of his own.


	13. Not A Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This wasn’t a date. Despite all evidence to the contrary, this was not a date. Shut up Voice-Of-Scarlet in the back of his head, Sun did not just ask him on a date. No way, no how.

“You drove me. To my work. On my day off.”

Sun shut the car door then pushed a button on his keys that made it chirp before pushing them into his pocket. “Huh? Yeah! I get free coffee here. Why?”

Neptune couldn’t hold back the need to pinch the bridge of his nose, as if it would relieve any stress put on him. “I just can’t believe you. Do you only know two places?”

Sun looked genuinely offended. “I get free coffee.”

He actually looked upset. Neptune couldn’t believe him. “Fine! Fine,” he exclaimed, giving in.

“Besides! We just need somewhere we can sit down and get important work done.”

“Now we’re doing work?”

Sun turned to look back at Neptune, flashing him an evil grin.

“Oh Jesus Christ, save me.”

Sun shoved open the doors and the little bell that rang over the door nearly sent Neptune into a spiral of work anxiety.

More people crowded the shop than usual. You for once you couldn’t hear the sound of Weiss’s nails hitting the keyboard over the sound of people chatting. There were people tapping their shoes against the ground and holding hands across the table with their maybe-date. Nora was being characteristically loud as she bounced around Ren, Lord help him.

“Is it just busy on the days I’m not working?” Neptune wondered aloud, gazing around at the assembled.

“Seems like it!” Sun said and swung into his usual seat by the window, letting his seat turn around with his momentum.

Multiple patrons’ heads swiveled in their direction.

Neptune sat down and shielded his face with one hand. “My God, you’re loud.”

“Huh?” Sun practically screamed, leaning over the entire table with one hand cupped against his ear.

“Shush! Shush!” Neptune waved frantically at him, glancing around at the curious eyes that were definitely watching them not. “Just... quiet for a second.”

Sun leaned his chair back and stuck out his tongue, pushing his huge arms behind his head. Neptune flicked his eyes towards the table where he started brushing off imaginary crumbs, work instincts kicking in no matter what he did to push them down. “So. What did you want to do here?”

“Oh right!” Sun rocketed back up into proper posture, nearly giving Neptune whiplash just from watching him. “Gimme your phone.”

“Excuse me?”

“Your phone!”

“Why?” Neptune asked, suddenly suspicious. Had Sun seen what he’d been texting Scarlet in the stairwell? Sun could _not_ see what he'd been texting Scarlet in the stairwell.

“It’s important!” Sun whined, pouting.

“What the fuck?”

“You’ll be able to see everything I’m doing I swear.” He sounded unbearably sincere, the earnestness practically oozing off of him.

Neptune regarded Sun’s face carefully. Big blue eyes, somewhat pouted lower lip, raised eyebrows. Handsome. Undeniably handsome.

Goddammit, Neptune was so fucking predictable.

He sighed and relinquished his phone for the second time that day.

Sun took it with a smile. “Ya big baby,” he teased.

“Hey!” Neptune protested half-heartedly, no heat in his words whatsoever.

Sun scooted his chair over to join sides with Neptune, but the chair scratched the ground with the most unholy, most horrible screeching noise a chair could make, only attracting more eyes their way.

Neptune sunk further down into his seat. God just strike him down. Kill him on the spot. He could see Weiss glaring at him from her corner, and he wished with all his heart that she’d just kick them out so he could escape.

“Okay,” Sun began as he nearly pressed Neptune against the wall. “Open your phone for me.”

Sun’s shoulder pressed against Neptune’s arm. He could smell his cologne. It was actually nice, not gross and strong but a little simple and a little flowery. Neptune hoped he smelled that nice. Had he remembered to put on cologne? He did, he did... Right? No, he did.

Neptune pressed his thumb against the home button and his phone came to life.

“What’s your background?” Sun asked.

“I don’t know. I think it was preset.”

Sun’s eyes flashed towards him. “Bro.”

“What?”

“That’s the most boring thing I’ve ever heard.”

“What am I supposed to have as my background, jackass?!”

“I dunno! Maybe somebody hot! Maybe a cool landscape or pattern or something!” Sun sounded almost disappointed in him. “Well we’re gonna have to fix that.”

“What?”

“Say cheese!” Sun yelled right in his ear and Neptune yelped and would’ve recoiled if it weren’t for Sun suddenly squeezing their faces _far_ too close together. His glasses pressed uncomfortably into his cheek.

“Holy shit dude what the fuck?!” Neptune exclaimed, struggling to get free and definitely not blushing. Sun ignored him, stretched out his arm and grinned wide at the camera, snapping a photo of the two of them. Neptune, to his credit, managed to at least turn his eyes to the camera and crack his face into a weak smile before the flash went off.

“Anyway,” Sun said, releasing Neptune unfazed, Before Neptune could stop him, Sun had already found the settings app and changed the background to the picture he’d just taken.

Sun looked ecstatic. Neptune looked… Well panicked was definitely the correct word, but his smile was more genuine that he wanted to admit.

Sun exited back to the home screen, and started mashing his fingers through the carefully thought through folders of apps on Neptune’s phone. He immediately tapped on the one labeled “Life” and started scrolling. “What, no Grindr?”

“No.”

“Ooh! But you do have Tinder.” Sun tapped the app.

Neptune immediately pressed the phone down onto the table, staring Sun dead in the eye.

Sun kept his eye on Neptune’s hand. “Your nails look nice, bro! It’s a nice color on you.”

“What are you doing?” Neptune hissed.

“What? I told you I would help you find someone!” Was it just wishful thinking, or did Sun sound… regretful? But that couldn’t make sense, this guy never seemed to second guess himself, at least not with any decisions that Neptune had noticed. So why would he be regretting offering to help Neptune get a date?

“Like I need your help.” Neptune rolled his eyes at the mock outraged expression Sun was sporting.

“You falling for me already? Aw that’s so sweet bro.”

“As if.”

Sun grinned at him. “I think my taste is a little better than yours seeing as how you drank yourself into a stupor after your last break up. I just want to make sure something like that doesn’t happen again, bro.”

Neptune could feel the tension in his shoulders rising, but not so much out of anger. More so that the look in Sun’s eye, the strangely soft smile, and the way he said that last sentence, was strangely… Caring? Fond? Maybe even-

No. Nope doing that, not going there.

Neptune cleared his throat, looked away, and let go of the phone. “Go ahead,” he said.

“You agree then!” Sun laughed.

“No! I don’t—” Neptune sighed. “I’ll judge your taste by watching.”

Sun began swiping, narrating his thought process as he went. Every so often he would stop to read the bios, but usually it went something like,

“He’s too old. Too young. She’s pretty, but not your type. That’s just a picture of the pope. Racist. Old. Old.”

Every so often, he got stuck and would finally ask for Neptune’s opinion, where Sun would decide that they weren’t right before Neptune could finish formulating his thought.

And he wasn’t wrong. Neptune didn’t like a lot of the people on Tinder anyway, but all of Sun’s critiques were fairly accurate at getting down to the core of what Neptune didn’t like.

Which was weird for someone he had only recently started to get to know. It was almost unnerving how well Sun seemed to know him already.


	14. Catching Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mistakes were made. Astronomical mistakes. Neptune might be starting to come around to his friends’ point of view on the situation

After about twenty minutes, Sun started to get bored. “Wow, this sucks, all these people suck,” he muttered, looking disappointed.

“Have you never tried online dating before?” Neptune asked.

“No, usually people come up to me and ask me out on dates.”

Neptune frowned. “Wow.” Surely he just misspoke when he said ‘people’ and not ‘girls.’ Because Sun was definitely straight. Shut up Voice-Of-Scarlet in the back of his head.

“I think I’ve asked out one person ever.”

“Yeah? Did it go well?” Again, with him saying one  _ person _ and not one  _ girl _ .

“Well, I’m single now.”

Neptune felt a curl of guilt in his stomach, remembering the hand he had to play in  _ that _ whole ordeal. “Yeah.”

“Anyway, none of those people were good enough for you,” Sun said casually, swiping through the other pages on Neptune’s phone.

Neptune laughed. “No?”

“No.” He looked Sun right in the eye when he said this, bright blue eyes narrowed as if daring him to argue. Neptune didn’t think he’d ever heard Sun be so convinced of  _ anything _ .

“Whatever you say.”

“Bro, you are by far the coolest guy that I have ever met in my life. I swear I will get you a date or die trying, Neptune Vasilias,” Sun said, finally putting down the phone and pointing a finger directly into Neptune’s face.

Neptune raised an eyebrow. “How do you know my last name?” He was fairly convinced that he’d never told him his full name.

“Nora.”

“Wait how the fuck do you know Nora? How does  _ everyone _ know her?!”

“Ren’s in my psych class,” he said, waving a hand to brush him off. “Bro, are they dating?”

“Nobody fucking knows, and they’re not answering.” How was this his life? How was this an almost casual conversation that he hadn’t even noticed they were having? 

Neptune couldn’t remember the last time he had a conversation with someone that went this smoothly without him analysing everything and knowing exactly what to say without needing to think about it. Talking to Sun was so easy, when had that happened?

They’d freaking screamed at each other during their first conversation. What had changed in the intervening time?

“No, but really. I’m serious about you being the best, bro,” Sun continued as if he’d never been interrupted.

“Damn, okay.” He rolled his eyes.

“Neptune.” God, he sounded so serious. Neptune jumped a little when he saw how close Sun was to his face. He had to be leaning across the entire table, as if that was an okay thing to do. A kind of intense prideful fire was in his eyes, and for once he wasn’t smiling.

It changed his entire face. Neptune’s traitorous mind stumbled back to their first drive. Sun had been this close before, too. Exactly as close, with the stars above them reflecting the flecks of gold in his eyes. With this same expression of concern and somehow… pride. Pride in Neptune.

Looking at him like he was the only thing in the world-

Nope! Nope nope nope, not having that!

“Jesus! You scare me with your intensity sometimes!” Neptune sat up straight in his chair. Anything to get some distance between the two of them.

Sun laughed, and Neptune couldn’t help but watch his chest as it rose and fell in shuddery bursts. The smile was back, and Neptune would be lying if he said he hadn’t missed it. Neptune didn’t know what to do with a Sun without that smile, in those moments when he became so serious and intense out of nowhere.

“Do you wanna go get some food?” Sun asked, smiling so genuine and so bright it was almost blinding.

“Sure,” Neptune heard himself say. The thought of saying no never once crossed his mind.

Before Neptune realized it, he had Wendy’s in his lap and Sun was driving him back to his dorm. The speed was just as breakneck as before. Sun apparently only knew how to drive if it was at least twenty miles over the speed limit.

When they arrived back at Neptune’s dorm building, Sun screeched to a halt at the sidewalk. Before Neptune could even move to open the door, Sun had leapt from his side of the car and scrambled over the hood to open it for him.

If he was really that excited, why begrudge him the opportunity?

Sun yanked the door open and flashed him that too bright smile of his, giving a mock bow. Neptune rolled his eyes. Stupid not-frat boy, holding the door for him. Shut up.

With Neptune’s attention occupied with his phone, he didn’t notice that Sun was strangely quiet. Any quiet was strange for him, so this really should have stood out like a sore thumb.

Neptune’s eyes drooped, and he longed for his bed. Sun was walking much closer than he really had any need to be, the two were practically brushing shoulders. Their hands kept brushing, and everytime they did Sun’s face would do a flush/grin combo, and Neptune wouldn’t be able to meet his eyes.

Paying attention to his phone would keep him from just grabbing Sun’s hand. That would work. He did  _ not _ want to hold his hand. Nope. Not even a little bit. The bland concrete stairs they were climbing up were extremely interesting.

Turns out that diverting all of his attention to one thing was his undoing.

“Hey watch for the-” Sun said a moment too late from in front of him, and then Neptune’s foot stepped into open air onto the step that wasn’t there.

With a very undignified yelp, Neptune swayed forward and then back, and then finally toppled backwards towards the stairs they’d just climbed. Neptune scrambled to get his feet back under him, but he was too tired, and his movements were too sluggish, and it was too late he was falling-

“Hey!” A large calloused hand enveloped his own. Neptune’s rapid descent to the sidewalk below jerked to a halt. One foot still on the final stair, one foot in the open air, and Sun’s hand holding him up from the brink.

The other’s blue eyes were wide with a shocked sort of alarm. Their eyes met, and Neptune felt a thrill go up his spine.

Guess they did end up holding hands.

Sun pulled him back up to standing, babbling the entire time about how Neptune had to be more careful, and he should watch where he’s going, and was he okay. But all Neptune could notice was that they were standing nearly chest to chest. Alone. In the dark courtyard.

A yelp escaped him when Sun pulled him into a bone crushing hug. “God, bro, don’t do that to me, my heart can’t take it.”

“Yeah well.” Neptune could feel his heartbeat through his shirt. “I didn’t exactly do it on purpose, dumbass”

Sun pulled back. “When I asked if you were falling for me, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind you know.” He flashed him a cheeky smile, still standing far too close.

Neptune’s mouth was saying words before his brain had time to vet them. “Give it a minute,” he heard himself say, “You’ve got more of a shot than you think.”

“I- what?” Sun started to snark back, then froze. His eyes were so wide Neptune could see the stars reflected in them, and his face was flushed a red to rival Scarlet’s hair. For once he seemed to be at a loss for words.

Finally, what he’d said processed in Neptune’s mind. As soon as he said them, he wanted to take them back. What the hell had possessed him to say that? The ghost of Cupid Past?! 

Oh dear God in heaven, saints preserve him.

They stood like that for a minute. Chests nearly touching, Sun still holding his hand, alone in a dark courtyard. Leaning towards each other imperceptibly, closer, closer, and-

A car alarm went off in the parking lot.

-The two of them leapt back from each other like they’d just been caught doing something they shouldn't have. The thoughts of what that  _ something  _ almost was were chasing themselves across Neptune’s mind, one after another.

Neptune couldn’t meet Sun’s eyes, and Sun kept rubbing the back of his neck. Even his ears were tinged red. For once, Neptune could almost read him. He was thinking the same things. Fuck. Dammit. He averted his eyes.

“I’m… I’m gonna go,” Neptune muttered, glancing at Sun. He was shocked to find Sun looking at him like he’d never seen him before. One of those in between expressions, that left Sun looking so open but so unreadable.

Pushing the door to the stairwell open, he finally managed to meet Sun’s eyes and murmur a quiet, “Good night.” His face was still bright red, he could feel it.

“Night, bro,” Sun said with a soft smile, in as close to a murmur as the other boy was probably capable of. One hand shoved in a pocket, the other gave Neptune a small wave.

He’d been holding that hand just minutes before, he couldn’t help thinking as he climbed the dark stairwell. He’d nearly fallen down the god damn stairs, then Sun had  _ caught  _ him, and then… Well Neptune was still bright red thinking about what nearly happened next.

Scarlet opened up his door, his perfectly styled hair going in every direction and a sleep mask pushed up onto his forehead. He found a very red-faced Neptune standing just outside, his shoulders hiked up to his ears and oil stains on his shirt.

“Oh, you’re back,” Scarlet yawned, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Did you actually need something, or do you just delight in bothering me?”

Neptune didn’t say anything at first. Scarlet waited. 

Until finally, “Okay! Maybe I’m a little gay for Sun!”

Scarlet snorted. “Congratulations, you’re officially the last person to know.”

And he shut the door in Neptune’s face.


	15. Invasion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There had to be laws against this, right? This was breaking and entering

Neptune was considering deleting Instagram off his phone.

He never used it. What was the point of having an app that you never used? It just sat there, looking pretty and taking up space that his dying and outdated phone desperately needed.

He only had, like, 500 followers anyway. It’s not like anyone would miss him. He only posted once every two months to show off places he went with his mom, places Jaune forced him to go, and places he went by himself.

And the people he followed only served to make him feel bad about what he was wearing, how bad his skin was, and how he was very quickly running out of money.

He didn’t need it! He for sure didn’t need it. Really.

He clicked on the app.

Sun’s page popped up.

He found himself scrolling.

God, Neptune was pathetic.

What had he said to himself just a few weeks ago? Don’t fall for another straight guy, you fucking idiot, you’re only going to live to regret it. Yet here he was. Falling for another straight guy.

This picture of him from June was nice, though. Sun at the beach, posing as he had to because he’s Sun, wearing stupid and absurdly colorful swim trunks, tan lines outlining where a T-shirt might be, literally every muscle visible, pink tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth. God, he was ripped. Neptune didn’t think it was physically possible to be that ripped.

Neptune had seen this picture maybe five times in the last two days. Why should he deprive himself of the joy of beautiful people?

He sighed. Because he was torturing himself, maybe.

Scattered amongst the solo pictures of Sun and numerous selfies were pictures of him kissing a girl’s cheek, carrying a girl on his back, grinning for the camera with a date with melty ice creams in their hands.

Neptune scrolled past those.

Ugh.

Should he text Sun? It had been two days since they had last spoken. Two days filled with anxiety and bad beers that Neptune didn’t even like and half drunken rants to Jaune. Poor Jaune. He needed to stop laying everything on Jaune.

Neptune still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with Sun. Maybe he got food poisoning, or kidnapped, or died in a horrible car crash. The last one was more likely than others.

God, why wasn’t Sun texting him?

No, no. He was fine. Sun liked to wait for Neptune to text first.

This was fine.

Everything was fine.

Neptune knocked his head against his phone screen once. Twice. A couple times. Stupid, idiot, stupid. Stop falling for pretty boys that show you a spoonful of kindness, Neptune. Pretty straight boys. It only causes heart break, no matter how good he looks in swim trunks.

A knock at the door sent Neptune’s phone flying out of his hands.

“Jesus, fuck! ” Neptune yelled and dropped to the floor, picking the phone back up with jittering hands.

“Wow, you have a mouth on you!” a voice called from the hallway.

It was Sun. Of course it was Sun. God himself could see Neptune’s pathetic ass and decided to smite him by bringing this horrible, horrible hot boy straight to his dorm room.

“Sun, what the hell are you doing here?!” Neptune yelped as he attempted to put himself back together. How was his hair? Was his hair okay? Were his button up and skinny jeans clean? Was he at least somewhat presentable?

Scarlet was right. This wasn’t how you acted around friends.

“I’m just coming over to say ‘hi’ to my buddy!” Sun said, his voice somewhat muffled through the thin wood.

Neptune managed to pull himself to the door and yank it open. “You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Jesus, it was worse seeing him in person. Bright eyes, brighter smile. Dressed like he was going to the beach even though it was getting down to the fifties outside. And, god help him, that awful neon yellow tank top that said SWOLE across his pecs.

Neptune was right the first time. They were very nice pecs.

Said pecs were also bracketed by one large paper shopping bag and one paper holder filled with two cups of coffee.

“What’s all this?” Neptune said.

Sun pushed past him into his dorm room.

“Hey!” Neptune said just as Sun interrupted with,

“I brought snacks and coffee, dude!” He pressed the bag of groceries into Neptune’s hands and began rummaging about Neptune’s room. “You’ve never let me in here before! Wow, it really is clean...”

The rough paper scratched against Neptune’s chin as he set the groceries down onto his bed. He spun around and grabbed Sun’s shoulder before he could set his hands on the mountain of carefully organized papers sitting on Neptune’s desk.

“Please don’t touch my stuff.”

Sun held up his hands in surrender with a crooked smile.

Neptune sighed and let his hand fall to his side. “What are you actually doing here?”

“I really just wanted to hang out with you, man!” Sun said and set down the coffee holder, plucking his out and handing the other to Neptune. “We always go these long periods without talking or texting. What’s up with that?” He took a sip from his coffee, looking Neptune up and down. “Was I interrupting something?”

Instagram was still open on his phone. Neptune slammed his hand down on it as casually as he could. Which is to say not casually in the slightest. “No, you weren’t.”

“You don’t sound very sure.” 

Neptune felt the need to slam his head against something hard. He settled on grabbing Sun’s shoulder and pushing him back into his desk. Sun let out a huge laugh and held his hands up once again.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” he cackled.

“Asshole,” Neptune sniffed.

Sun backed himself towards Neptune’s bed and sat down, bouncing a little, and patted the place next to him.

Neptune couldn’t help but let a smile crack onto his face. “What?”

“Sit down! You’re stressing me out, standing up with your arms crossed like that!”

“Fine, fine, fine!” Neptune took a seat on his bed next to Sun. “Really, Sun. What’s with all the coffee and snacks?”

Sun reached into his grocery bag and took out a huge bag of cheetos, popped it open, and began to munch on one. “Well,” he said between bites. “It’s easier to talk over food and coffee and I had something I wanted to talk about.”

“I would object to calling cheetos food.”

“You put them in your mouth and chew. That’s food.”

“You can do the same thing to a pencil.”

“Shut up! That’s not the point!” Sun’s lower lip pouted and his eyebrows pushed together. Like he was genuinely worried Neptune was making fun of him.

“Alright, continue.”

“Anyway,” Sun said pointedly. “I wanted to ask you a couple questions.”

“I- What?” Neptune spluttered, taken aback. “Why?”

“Because I know like nothing about you, bro!” Sun exclaimed, flopping back against Neptune’s bed dramatically. “I’ve known you for like a month and all I know about it is that, like, you go to this school!”

“So?” Neptune asked, an eyebrow raising.

“So that’s weird!” Sun complained, rolling onto his stomach and threatening to knock both Neptune and his coffee off the bed. Only Neptune’s reflexes kept them both from having hot coffee dumped all over them.

“What the hell dude?!”

“Sorry, sorry,”

“Like hell you are,” Neptune hissed, shaking his hand where the cup had burned him. He got up and put the cup on his desk, safe from any more of Sun’s flailing.

“Bro, give that back!” Sun exclaimed, shooting up and pinwheeling his arms for the receding coffee cup.

“No way in hell,” Neptune replied, jumping back to keep it out of reach. “You are  _ not _ going to spill this and get coffee all over my bed.”

“Aw come on, I would never.”

“You totally would.”

“No way. I’ve got like, lightning fast reflexes.”

“Only because you drive like a maniac!”

“I do not!” Sun pouted as Neptune settled into his desk chair. “But whatever, you distracted me, bro! Let’s play a game” Sun proposed, eyes sparkling with what Neptune could only describe as mischief.

There was no way this was going to be good. 

“It’s nothing stupid, I swear!” Neptune was not reassured

Neptune leaned back, sipping from his own coffee as he did so. “Depends on what the game is, and what the rules are.”

Sun smiled. “No rules. We just take turns asking each other questions about the other.”

“Isn’t that just…a conversation?” 

“Well, yeah, but different! You don’t actually have to follow the flow of a conversation like this! You can just ask random stuff without it being weird!”

Neptune considered refusing for a second. He also considered evicting Sun from his dorm room. But he just looked so  _ excited _ about his dumb plan.

God damn it, his willpower was as about as strong as a wet paper towel. At least where Sun was concerned, it seemed. 

“Fine, but I reserve the right to refuse to answer,” Neptune agreed. With setting a rule himself, he gained at least a modicum of control back.

Not that it was likely to matter, knowing Sun. 

“Deal!” Sun chirped, eyes glittering and a smile splitting his face. He flopped down onto his elbows, letting his legs kick behind him, looking for all the world like a kid barely out of elementary school.

Sun gestured to Neptune with a smile. “You first.”

Neptune choked on his coffee, having realized only then that he’d been focused less on how much of it he’d been drinking, and more on the fact that Sun was laying on his bed as comfortably as if he owned the place. On his  _ bed _ .

Oh dear sweet lord, save him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Before the Dawn, huh? Man. It got me.


	16. Twenty Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sun asks Neptune some questions, and then Neptune asks some of himself

“Fine. I’ll go first.” Any question. Any question in the world. Not that he really wanted to know much more about Sun in the first place. Neptune pursed his lips for a moment before speaking.

“What’s your favourite colour?”

Sun snorted. “Of all things, you’d go for that?”

Neptune crossed his arms defensively. “Well, you did say the whole point is to ask random questions.” 

“Fair, fair. It’s blue.” 

“Wow. Who could’ve guessed that?” Neptune deadpanned.

Sun stuck his tongue out. “Yeah, yeah, shut up.”

“No really, I never would've guessed!” Neptune snarked, eyeing Sun’s bright blue shirt, and thinking of his car. The amusement that slipped into his voice must’ve been an accident.

Sun crossed his arms. “God, whenever you do that it feels like you’re staring into my soul.”

“Whenever I do what?”

“Look me up and down like that!”

“I do that?”

“Yeah! All the time!”

Neptune suddenly felt very self conscious himself. Neptune, you thirsty fuck. He tried to rub the red off his cheeks. “It’s because your fashion sense is awful.”

“I look great.”

He did. “Nope.” He really did

Sun flashed a smile. “That’s a lie and we both know it.”

That gave Neptune pause. Did he know? His eyes always looked so… something. Like he knew something and you weren’t in on the joke.

Could he know? Was Neptune that obvious?

Yes, whispered the voice of Scarlet in the back of his mind. Yes you are.

Shut up voice of Scarlet.

“Why’s that your favourite?” Neptune couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“Against the rules, no asking two questions in a row!” Sun said from his hands and knees, pointing an accusing finger in Neptune’s face

“I thought you said there weren’t any rules.”

Sun stopped in his tracks, his expression wilting slightly. “Okay, fair enough, you got me there,” he conceded, settling down to sit cross legged, his arms hugging Neptune’s pillow to him. 

Half of him wanted to snap at Sun to stop touching his things, and the other half… Well Neptune didn’t even want to acknowledge that half.

“I get to ask two questions, too then!” Sun demanded, as if there were rules now, and as if this mattered at all.

“Sure, fine,” Neptune shrugged, leaning back in his chair to place his empty cup next to Sun’s full one and wincing at the protesting squeak the old springs gave.

“Okay, first question. What’s your favourite colour, right back atcha!” Sun exclaimed, tossing his pillow at him barely before he had time to react.

He managed to catch it with a yelp of, “What the hell, dude?!”

“Just trying to keep you on your toes,” Sun grinned, winking at him.

“No seriously what the hell?!” he spluttered, fighting to keep his face from turning beet red at Sun winking at him. From his  _ bed _ .

“You’re avoiding the question, bro!” Neptune was seriously going to smack that sing-songy voice right out of him.

“Fine. It’s red,” Neptune grumbled.

Sun looked surprised. Or whatever Sun-expression passed for surprise “What. Not blue?”

“Some of us are three-dimensional, dumbass,” Neptune replied dryly, barely resisting the urge to look at him from over his glasses and really nail home the superior tone of voice.

Sun stared blankly at him for a minute before giving a bark of laughter. “You did it! You made a joke!” 

Neptune flushed. “I can make jokes!”

“I’m so proud of you!”

“Shut up.” He chucked his pillow back at Sun, who unfortunately caught it much better than he had. “Just ask your next stupid question.”

Sun tucked the pillow under his chin and thought for a minute, before brightening immensely when a question occurred to him. “Here’s a good one! When’s your birthday?”

Neptune stiffened up slightly. He willed every bone in his body  _ not _ to turn and look at the calendar where his birthday, amongst other dates, was very clearly circled in red Sharpie. 

No way in  _ hell _ was he allowing Sun to find out when his birthday was. He’d bribe Jaune into silence. He’d even pretend to like Scarlet’s shitty pirate swords if it would ensure that Sun didn’t find out.

“Erm…when’s yours?”

“That’s not part of the rules, but it’s February 15th. Now tell me yours!” The teen insisted, leaning forward as far as he could without tipping headlong off the bed.

Sun’s eyes were sparkling. Bright and shining like a noonday sky. His face couldn’t seem to decide if it wanted to grin or just gaze at him hopefully.

“No.” He crossed his arms, determined to not say anything, to stay strong in the face of this man who seemed able to so easily melt all his defenses. “Not saying that one.”

“Come on, bro!” Sun complained, slumping in disappointment. “Of all times to deploy the no answering power. Please?”

Willpower? What willpower? God he was going to regret this.

“Fine… It’s tomorrow.” 

And he braced for the inevitable onslaught.

“It’s WHAT!?” Sun shouted, clapping his hands to his head.

Neptune groaned, pushing his glasses up to pinch between his eyes. “This is why-”

“But  _ tomorrow _ ! Why didn’t you tell me!?” Sun whined, flopping back down onto the bed and flailing his arms in the air.

He dropped his glasses back down. “Because you’d react like this! Also, you didn’t ask.” Also I didn’t want you to know.

“Well yeah, but how am I supposed to get something together now!?”

“You’re not. That’s the point.”

“Lame! We’re doing something! You deserve to have fun on your birthday!” 

“No, no, no.” Neptune said firmly. He was not in the mood for Sun’s idea of “fun.” Besides, he didn’t think his heart could take spending much more time with him.

“Yes, yes, yes! No arguments! I’m taking you out somewhere fun for your birthday, and you can’t stop me, so you should cancel work now!” 

He was like a dog with a bone, he just wouldn’t give this up. Neptune firmly squashed down the flutters in his heart at the prospect of Sun “taking him out” somewhere. 

This was  _ not _ a date. Especially if he stayed strong and didn’t go. “Sun, I have to work.” Did he even have work tomorrow? Maybe he could call in to specifically request work, just to have a firm alibi. Yeah that could work.

“You work dawn to dusk like every day!”

“Can’t you afford to take just one day off?” 

Neptune glared at him, feeling vaguely offended. He took days off. Maybe not as many as he’d  _ like _ , but it did happen. “Some of us actually have to pay for college, idiot.” 

“Hey, that’s not fair-”

“And I can’t just call off work out of the blue!”

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll get my mom to do something,” Sun said, waving away the excuse. Another pregnant pause, while Sun put on his very best puppy-dog eyes. Damn those puppy dog eyes. Idiot probably didn’t even know he was doing it. “Please? Come on, bro!”

“It’s a  _ no _ , Sun.”

Sun visibly deflated, face melting into… disappointment? Guilt? He drew his knees up to his chest and wouldn’t meet Neptune’s eyes.

Neptune sighed. “What are you doing?”

“Making you feel guilty,” Sun said, his voice muffled in his knees. “Is it working?” His eyes flitted up to meet Neptune’s for a moment, a truly absurd amount of hope brimming in them.

For a moment, Neptune just narrowed his eyes at him, scrunching up his face. The prospect of getting to spend his birthday doing something other than studying feverishly or working was a tempting one. 

But with Sun? The guy who he was crushing on, albeit reluctantly. Yeah, that right there was a recipe for disaster. And don’t even get him started on the field day that Scarlet and Jaune would have if they got hold of the information that Sun took him somewhere for his  _ birthday _ .

Every bone in his body was telling him that he would regret agreeing to this. But then again, he’d thought he’d regret agreeing to the “race.” Despite all evidence to the contrary, he’d actually hadn’t. 

And… As much as he hated to admit it, Sun was a good guy. Pushy and overbearing, sure, definitely. 

But he’d seemed genuinely upset when Neptune had said no to his offer. Then there had been the thing with the race, he’d seemed genuinely worried about him. Screening all of his dates, to make sure that Neptune got a good partner. And then the other night on the stairs…

Stars reflecting in his eyes, holding his hand, catching him- 

What was the worst that could happen?

“Fine,” Neptune muttered, crossing his arms. “I’ll call off work, and you can take me somewhere for my stupid birthday.” 

“Hell yes!!” Sun leaped up on the bed, grinning. Despite his best efforts, Neptune couldn’t stop his lips from quirking up into a fond smile.

“Just you wait, it’s going to be spectacular!” Sun declared, pointing at him and jumping up and down, generally making a huge mess of Neptune’s carefully made bed.

“Spectacular?” Neptune asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow, eyes following Sun as he bounded down from the bed. God he was already regretting his. This was going to be a huge mistake.

“SPEC-TAC-U-LAR!” Sun repeated with gusto, clasping Neptune by the shoulders 

“Uh yeah, sure,” Neptune agreed, fighting to keep his eyes from flitting down to Sun’s hands. But god he was so close, there was nowhere safe to look.

Sun let out an honest god  _ squeal  _ and looped his arms around Neptune’s middle. “Thank you thank you  _ thank you!!” _

“Hey, dude wait-!” Paying no attention to Neptune’s protests, Sun picked him up and twirled him in a circle before Neptune could do anything to stop him. Twirled him, like he was a god damn princess from a Disney movie

Neptune wondered if he weighed anything at all to Sun.

“This is gonna be the fucking  _ best _ , bro!” Sun said, finally putting him back down. Sun’s eyes were bright with excitement, hair sticking every direction and flush high on his cheekbones.

Neptune was in shock. Sun was holding him. Sun was  _ holding  _ him, and was looking delighted as hell while doing it

“I’ll head back to my dorm now!” He’d released him, not that Neptune noticed, still standing frozen where Sun had left him. Sun bustled around the room, picking up his coffee from the desk and his flip-flops from the floor. 

“But you’d better make sure your crazy schedule is empty for tomorrow!” Sun warned him, pointing warningly at him as he backed out of the room. “I’ll text you or something, and we’ll do the thing. See you tomorrow for the best birthday ever!”

Neptune shook out of his stupor just in time to call “It’s a date!” after Sun’s retreating back.

“Hell yeah it’s a date!” Sun’s exuberant voice called from the entryway. “Oh hey, Scarlet!”

It’s a date. It’s a  _ date?! _ Had he really said that?! How could he have said that?!

It had been instinct. Pure unadulterated instinct. That had to be it. No way did he actually think that this was a date. Sun was just taking somewhere for his birthday. By himself. As  _ friends _ .

Had… Had Sun said it back? Or had he imagined that?

Scarlet poked his head through the door. He found Neptune standing there where Sun had left him, frozen in shock.

He glanced over his shoulder at the door Sun had just exited. And then back at Neptune.

“So… it’s a date?” Scarlet asked slyly, one eyebrow raised

Neptune’s face cycled past tomato straight to beet red. “Shut the fuck up!” He yelled, burying his face in his hands. “It’s not a date, it’s not like that.” Hearing no response from his roommate, he glanced up to see him just watching him, with a look bordering on maximum skepticism. 

“It’s not like that!” Neptune protested. “We’re just going somewhere for my birthday-”

“Oh, it’s  _ we _ now?” Scarlet sounded more than a little amused.

“No! We- I-  _ He _ is taking me somewhere for my birthday. As  _ friends _ .”

“Yeah? Where’re you going then?”

“It’s a surprise,” Neptune said sarcastically, waving his hands and sinking into his chair.

“So, Sun, the guy you have a crush on who totally likes you, is taking you on a date for your birthday. To a mystery location,” Scarlet surmised, his thumbs already texting furiously. 

“That’s not what’s happening!”

“Oh really? Because it really sounds like it is.”

“It’s not.”

“Yeah it is.”

“No! It’s not!”

“He likes you, and he’s taking you on a date.”

“No he is not, Scarlet!” Neptune yelled. “Just let me explain-”

“Oh please do!” Scarlet said, gesturing to his phone. “Because you’re doing such a good job so far!”

Neptune bristled.

Scarlet grinned. “Uh huh. That’s what I thought.” Then he shut Neptune’s door with a snap and left him to stew.

This was not a date, he was  _ not _ going on a date with another straight boy, just to have his heart get broken all over again.

Sun did not like him. This was  _ not _ a date. Sun, straight-boy supreme, did  _ not _ just ask him on a date.

Oh god but if he did, Neptune almost turned him down. Sun  _ had  _ looked really upset when he’d said no…

Yeah. This was a mistake. This was a huge mistake.

Neptune’s phone buzzed, and he picked it up with wooden fingers.

“did Sun just ask you out??!?!” read the text from Jaune.

Neptune threw his phone across the room. He glared at the wall when Scarlet laughed.


	17. Second Thoughs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He’d agreed, but he immediately regretted doing so

Why had he agreed to this?

Sun was seriously having a negative effect on his decision-making skills. He’d always been successful at turning down parties, dinners, dates and outings at the drop of a hat. Aside from the few people he’d occasionally sit with in the dining hall for lunch, he’d always been good at not doing anything he didn’t want to do. 

For eighteen years of life he’d been able to resist- Wait. Not eighteen. Nineteen. It was his birthday, and he couldn’t just turn Sun down.

For some reason, he just couldn't say no to him.

Neptune barely ever had days off between his job and school. Getting up after the sun had risen was a strange occurrence for him, but he decided he was committed, he might as well enjoy it.

Rolling out of bed, and moving quietly to not wake Scarlet in the next room, he began sifting through his densely populated closet.

Stuff for work, stuff for school, presentations, job. Nothing good. Nothing that would say “Thanks for taking me out for my birthday, guy who I want to date but who doesn’t want to date me.”

Could he be more pathetic?

Obviously not. 

It didn’t help that Sun refused to tell him what this “event” was that they were going to. Scarlet and Jaune knew, obviously, from the sly looks his roommate had been giving him and the way his coworker wouldn’t meet his eyes, but they both refused to share.

Eventually he found a pair of jeans that were miraculously unstained, be it by coffee spills or general outerwear, and he pulled a creamy dress shirt out as well. Long sleeves, plus his red bomber jacket. No way was he getting cold this time.

Pulling the long shirt on, he shot a glance at himself in the mirror. God his hair was a wreck.

After a thorough combing, he got his hair to settle down, and then his eyes dropped to the shirt.

That V was a lot lower than he remembered it being. Should he wear a tie? He checked himself over a third time, making sure his hair was somewhat tame, when he came to a screeching halt in his own mental tracks.

What the hell was he doing?

Furious with himself, grabbed his jacket before dropping to sit on the edge of his bed. Why did he care? It didn’t matter, he would just wear the same thing as always, this was stupid. He should call off the date, before he ended up making a fool of himself.

As insistent as his inner monologue was on this, he couldn’t deny that the protests sounded feeble even to himself.

After all, Sun was  _ trying _ to do something nice for him. He couldn’t just blow him off, especially with so little notice. Sun kept going out of his way to spend more time with him, and what had he ever done in reciprocation?

Nothing. Not a single thing.

Yelling at himself internally aside, Neptune knew he had to leave if he wanted to make it to the coffee shop in time for Sun to pick him up. Neptune had been mortified at the idea of Scarlet spotting him being picked up for their date here, so he’d insisted they meet at the coffee shop.

To save time, it would be easier, he’d argued, and so he’d managed to convince Sun.

And stop calling it a date. That was something boyfriends did, not  _ friends _ .

And boyfriends they were  _ not _ . Asking him out might have been running around as a concept in his brain, but he’d never do it. Sun was straight, and he would realize soon enough that Neptune was boring, and that would push him away.

He was  _ straight _ . Right? No, he was. Definitely. No matter how much it hurt to convince himself of that.

This wasn’t a date, it couldn’t be. And  _ god _ it really hurt to think that. This whole thing was going to hurt, but he couldn’t turn Sun down! Even with the crush, it felt nice to have… a friend. Someone just to hang out with, who wasn’t obligated to be around like him like Jaune or Scarlet.

Not a boyfriend.  _ Not _ a boyfriend. No matter how much he wished, it wasn’t going to happen.

Fine. Let’s get this over with.

Sticking with the clothes he’d picked, he threw on his jacket, pulled on his boots, shoved his phone in his pocket and headed out the door.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t, you little love bird!” he heard Scarlet call from his room. He really hated his roommate sometimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is so short and bad ahhhHHHHH-


	18. Rollercoasters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The not-a-date begins, and Neptune finds himself enjoying it more than he originally anticipated

“So… where are we going?” Neptune demanded, leaning back in his seat.

Sun shook a finger. “It’s a surprise.”

“I hate surprises,” he said flatly, glaring at him.

Sun groaned exaggeratedly. “Well aren’t you just a ray of freaking sunshine? It’ll be fun, I promise!”

“Uh huh.”

“Why don’t you believe me?” the other teen whined, pouting.

Neptune crossed his arms. “Because you’re the same guy who said that driving like a maniac and nearly dying in a car crash was the time of his life.”

“I’m not that bad! And besides,” Sun glanced away from the road for a second to look at him, “I’d never get in a car crash with you in the car.”

“Not like you’d have much choice in the matter,” Neptune grumbled, propping his chin onto his hand and turning to look out the window. But he had to admit, Sun _was_ driving more carefully than he usually did.

For whatever reason that might be. No, it was _not_ because of him, stop thinking that right this instant.

Neptune caught sight of brightly colored lights, tracks running through the sky. He could hear people scream-cheering, and smell the kind of horrible oil-fried food that could only mean one thing.

“Oh no.”

“We’re here!” Sun cheered, pulling up and parking haphazardly.

“An amusement park? Really?” Neptune asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically. At least it wasn’t a restaurant or something, then he’d never be able to convince Scarlet, and himself, that this wasn’t a date.

Sun looked over at him, with an expression that he could recognize even on Sun’s face. Concern. “What… don’t like rollercoasters?”

Neptune pursed his lips, and deliberately did not think about how nervous Sun seemed for some reason. “Dunno, I’ve never been on one.”

“Then this’ll be great!” Sun insisted, turning off his car and hopping out. He offered a hand back for Neptune with a mock-bow, who barely ignored it and got out on his own.

Shoving his hands in his jacket pockets in an attempt to keep himself from even _accidentally_ grabbing Sun’s hand, he lifted his gaze to the large fairgrounds before him. “So… can I leave now?”

Sun doged around in front of him, looking vaguely affronted. “Not yet, bro! Just give it a try, please?” Those damn puppy dog eyes, how he hated them. “One ride. If you super hate it, we can leave early.”

Neptune narrowed his eyes, trying to find the trap in his words. Sun couldn’t be for real. He couldn’t legitimately want to spend time with him on what was not a date, and then just say he could go home if he wanted. “You’re… you’re serious? Just like that.”

Shrugging, Sun said, “It’s your birthday, bro. You’re calling the shots.”

“Except for the fact that you dragged me here.”

“Yeah except for that,” Sun conceded, grinning. “Now how about it?”

With an exaggerated sigh and a feeling like he was going to regret this, Neptune relented. “Fine.”

“Awesome! C’mon!” Ignoring his slouchy posture, Sun grabbed his arm and hauled him towards the turnstiles.

Neptune didn’t pay much thought as to what ride they were going to get on, his mind was too occupied with how close Sun was standing. He was holding him, and being so loud and over eager, and Neptune felt like he was going to combust. God, how pathetic was this?

“Well, which one do you want to try?” Sun asked, shoving the map into his face.

Neptune glared at him and pushed it away, and tried to ignore how nice the closeness made him feel.

Dammit I said I wasn’t going to do this. I wasn’t going to fall in love with another stupid straight boy. 

Such thoughts had been hanging over him almost constantly since they’d met, but they were weakening today. Was it because he’d made a choice to try and enjoy it while he could? 

“I dunno anything about roller coasters, you pick one.”

“Really, bro? But I feel bad picking, it’s _your_ birthday.”

“I’m here, aren’t I? That’s enough for me.” Neptune dodged away again at this, making sure to separate them a fair distance.

He didn’t go quite as far as he had been before, and seeing this, Sun smiled again. Bright enough to put his namesake to shame. Neptune fought to keep his expression neutral, determined not to give in any more than he already was.

“Kay bro, then let’s try this one over here!”

The lines were surprisingly short. From what he knew about amusement parks, Neptune was pretty sure you usually had to stand and wait around for hours. Shockingly, they were only waiting a few minutes, with Sun chattering on loudly the entire time.

Neptune was rapidly reaching the usual point of no return that he’d get to when Sun invaded his normal routine. That point where he gave up on trying to escape the scenario early, for his own sanity if nothing else.

He was going to try to enjoy this. It wasn’t a date, but it was likely that this was the closest he was ever going to get. Neptune might hate himself later for giving in, but for now he was going to enjoy himself.

When they reached the front of the line, he found himself sitting in the front car of a coaster that seemed a little too big, and Sun grinned excitedly at him. “You ready for this, bro?” 

He honestly looked like he cared whether he was ready or not, reminding Neptune that for some reason, he was in charge of this situation. And, lord save him, Neptune believed him.

He averted his eyes, realizing he was staring at Sun’s smile. Sun, thank God, seemed oblivious. 

“Ready as I can be,” Neptune commented, only realizing then how close the two of them would be sitting. It looked like Sun had also figured it out, and he looked delighted, curse him. He had no right.

The proximity between the two of them wasn’t helping his heartbeat, and he searched desperately for something to take his attention away from it. 

Noticing him checking the straps over each of his shoulders and the metal bar running over both of their waists, Sun reassured him, “It’s perfectly safe, bro, I’ve ridden this thing like a bajillion times.”

Of course he had. “Can’t be worse than your driving,” Neptune snarked, looking doubtful but immediately seizing on the topic. Driving with Sun was probably the closest he’d ever gotten to riding an actual roller coaster.

“Hey! That hurts,” he said in mock offense, leaning back in his seat. “But legit if you get scared, you have my permission to scream like a little girl.” Sun grinned, and winked. “My hand is here for the holding if you need it,” he insisted, his voice in a cheap imitation of gallantry, his hand outstretched, and shit-eating grin on his face.

Neptune flushed involuntarily, and smacked Sun’s hand away, hating the amusement on his face. “In your dreams,” he replied, gripping the bar tightly to prevent himself from giving into Sun’s offer or the temptation.

“Whatever you say, bro!”

The cart started moving, climbing up the first hill. A bubbling sense of anticipation built in his stomach. Sun was whopping loudly before they even made it halfway up the hill and nudging Neptune to do the same. But he didn’t have the chance to voice anything before they went plummeting.

For the first few seconds, Neptune could only hear the wind whistling through his ears, but soon enough familiar shouting reached his ears. In the seat next to him, Sun was wailing his head off, alternating between cheering in anticipation and trying to convince Neptune to do the same.

He was _not_ going to do the same, he was busy screaming protestations at the top of his lungs.

Neptune had to admit, his enthusiasm was more infectious than he’d initially anticipated. It also helped that Sun kept looking over at him with flush high on his cheekbones and a manic sparkle in his eyes. And a smile that only widened whenever he caught Neptune’s eyes.

Just for him.

Screw staying strong. Maybe he was pathetic, but he was going to fucking cherish this for as long as he lived.

Sun was smiling at him, _for_ him. Grabbing his hand to hold it over his head, all while Neptune kept his other safely clutching the lap bar. The other teen laced their fingers together, and their hands fit together, and Neptune couldn’t remember why he’d been denying himself this.

When the ride slowed, Neptune didn’t know whether his heart was pounding from the hills or from how Sun didn’t immediately released his hand.

“I haven’t been on a rollercoaster in ages, that was fucking _sick,_ bro!” Sun exclaimed immediately, voice somehow louder than normal and cracking from screaming the entire ride.

Of course he thought it was cool. This was coming from the idiot who nearly crashed his car trying to get air jumping a hill, and thought it was an absolute riot.

“Yeah, you _would_ say that,” Neptune said, voice a little shaky and supremely thankful to have both feet on solid ground again. 

“Hope your first coaster ride wasn’t too traumatizing, bro,” Sun snarked, glancing slyly at Neptune’s face. There was a layer of something in that expression that he couldn’t piece together, and Neptune didn’t catch how Sun’s gaze lingered on his face even after he turned away.

Neptune was the type who needed to have control over any given situation, and on a roller coaster, all you could do was hold on and pray. 

But somehow he’d come to associate such blood-pumpingly terrifying situations with Sun, who seemed to attract them like a moth to a flame. And, maybe just by association, he had enjoyed the ride. 

Sun was still holding his hand. 

His face was split into a grin, and his voice was squeaky with excitement, and he was holding his hand.

“You sounded like a prepubescent teenager!” Neptune exclaimed, the words escaping before he could stop them and a wide smile on his flushed cheeks.

“No I- I… what?” Sun stuttered out, looking taken aback. Neptune had no way of knowing that Sun had been so blindsided by his smile that the words had gone over his head. 

Neptune only knew that Sun’s bewildered expression was hilarious. “You were screaming the whole time, I didn’t know your voice could _go_ that high!” he explained, amusement tainting his words.

Then before he knew it, he was laughing. And then Sun looked affronted, and he was laughing even harder. 

“I was _not_ screaming!” Sun protested, not sounding very convincing with his efforts ruined by the way he was grinning again. “You really do save your laughs for near-death experiences, don’t you?” he said, a fondness in his voice that not even Neptune could miss.

Okay. _That_ was too much for him at the moment. Sun staring at him and looking way too open and sounding like that… Nope. Neptune was not having that.

He coughed nervously, and as his laughter petered off, Neptune said, “And shockingly, that was actually pretty…” Neptune pondered for a moment, and then squeezed Sun’s hand despite himself. “Actually pretty fun.”

Sun gaped like a fish for a few moments before speaking. “You… had fun? You mean it?!” 

“Yeah.” As hard as it was for him to believe it himself, he _had_ enjoyed himself. “I did.” 

Sun broke back into a blindingly-bright smile, and his eyes were sparkling with delight. He was still wearing it when they got off the cart and headed to the exit gate from the coaster. A smile meant just for him.

And was it wishful thinking, or did his hand get squeezed in return?

Swinging their still interlaced hands between the two of them, Sun pulled back out the map as they walked. He shoved the map back into Neptune’s face and asked, “Want to go here next?”

It was one of those fear falls where they drop you from fifty feet and shoot you back up again. Anxiety hammered in his chest, but the thought of seeing that just-for-him smile again made it worth it. Fear be damned.

“You know what, yeah! Let’s do it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a few more chapters left of this, maybe three or four


	19. Airborne

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This world keeps spinning, and with each new day I can feel a change in everything

“So…what is this thing?” Neptune questioned as he stared down at the lump of fried dough on a plate, covered in a heaping helping of powdered sugar and red strawberry sauce.

“It’s a funnel cake,” Sun explained, after a moment of confused silence. “Are you seriously telling me you’ve never had funnel cake before, bro?” 

They were sitting under a bright pink and blue pinstriped umbrella by the food stands. The two had gotten sandwiches for lunch, and Sun had suggested sharing something sweet, which had resulted in the funnel cake Neptune was now eyeing dubiously. 

It had first resulted in Sun winking and commenting, “Well I know where you could get somethin’ sweet bro,” to which Neptune had shoved the map in his face and fled to the nearest food stand. And then funnel cake.

“I feel like I’ll gain twenty pounds just looking at it,” Neptune mumbled.

Sun barked out a laugh. “You won’t! Just try it, I think you’ll like it!”

After a few more dubious glances between the plate and friend, Neptune stabbed a piece of the dough with a plastic fork and bit into it.

“Well?” Sun was leaning forward expectantly, watching him intently. Eyes _way_ too wide, but when weren’t they?

Neptune avoided his gaze for a moment. “It’s…not bad.”

“You liar! You like it!” Sun accused. “And of freaking course you’re using a fork.”

“What else would I use?”

“Uh, your hands? Duh?”

Neptune didn’t reply, simply stabbed another, more substantial, section of the funnel cake with his fork, and ate it in one bite.

“Hey, leave some for me!” Sun protested, diving forward and knocking Neptune’s utensil out of the way. 

It didn’t take long for them to polish off the plate, and by the end of it, Neptune had taken notice of a smear of strawberry sauce across Sun’s cheek.

He felt a momentary urge to wipe it away, to reach out and brush the sticky substance off. His arm was half-outstretched before Neptune stopped himself, not wanting to risk rocking the boat any further. 

Boundaries were something Sun tended to ignore, but not him. He liked his boundaries nice and sturdy, thank you very much. And doing something like _that_ would definitely be enough to tip off even Sun.

“You’ve got some on your face.” He said this instead.

“Oh?” The blonde took a napkin and wiped off his cheeks. “Got it?” He asked when he’d finished.

Neptune made the mistake of letting his eyes linger too long, and cursed himself silently when Sun met his eyes. 

“You good, bro?” Sun asked, waving a hand in front of his face. “Spaced out?”

Shit.

Neptune dropped his gaze. “No, no, sorry…I just…”

You’re unreal. The hottest guy I’ve ever met. Your eyes are so pretty when you smile. And you smile so often, that my heart can’t physically take it. But what’s worse is when you just look so _open_ , and I don’t know what to do with that.

The words he wanted to say chased themselves half-formed across the landscape of his consciousness. His stupid heart was more than eager to say them all. But he’d already come too close to ruining a perfectly good friendship, and he wasn’t going to give it a chance.

So those words Neptune wished he could say, he swallowed, and tucked safely into his heart never to be released.

Those words were dangerous, and to say them now would jeopardize everything that he’d accomplished today. He’d made it this far, he couldn’t ruin it in the eleventh hour.

Sun was straight. This wasn’t a date. Sun was _straight._

Now if Sun could just stop staring at him like that, maybe he could hold it together for a few more hours. After all, he could see the sun beginning it’s downwards descent, and he knew he wouldn’t have to endure much more of this.

Because even though this definitely wasn’t a special birthday date, he’d come too close to forgetting that a couple times. 

He was getting more caught up in it every time Neptune held his hand and Sun swung their clasped hands between them as they walked. He didn’t protest as much he normally would when he begrudgingly accepted an enthusiastically presented brightly-colored stall-game prize. 

And then the thing with the funnel cake. That wasn’t flirting right? Because with every time he had to ask himself that on this godforsaken not-date, the less convincing Neptune sounded to himself.

“Well, I think that was the last one.” Sun commented, ignoring Neptune leaning heavily on the railing underneath the ride they’d just gotten off of, knees shaking.

He’d pretty firmly figured out by the second ride that he didn’t like rollercoasters quite as much as he was letting on. However, he didn’t say anything, mostly because Sun enjoyed it so much himself. 

Sun could not make it more obvious that he liked roller coasters. A lot. They were fun, fast, and unexpected. Rapid twists and turns that made you feel like you were flying, before depositing you safely back to earth. 

Sun’s enthusiasm was infectious, and the huge exhilarated grins that Neptune received after each ride felt like reward enough. Each ride felt a brief little escape from the bonds of reality, into a universe where he could forget that this wasn’t a date.

And besides, Neptune signed up for this. If he’d really wanted to, Sun had given him a perfectly good out at the beginning of the day. But alas, Neptune was a weak spineless man with no willpower, so he went along with Sun.

Glancing up, Neptune realized that the sky had mostly darkened, and the last rays of the sun were filtering past the horizon.

“It’s getting dark…should we go soon?” Neptune asked from the railing he was clinging to like his life depended on it. Which it _definitely_ did. No way was the world supposed to be spinning like this.

Sun perked up immediately, nearly falling over himself to pull the map from his back pocket. “No, no! There’s one more ride left!”

“There is?” Neptune groaned, and glanced over at the map Sun was displaying proudly. He squinted in confusion before his eyes landed on what appeared to be the park's star attraction. “You mean the Ferris wheel?” Neptune asked.

Sun nodded. “We should go on it!”

Neptune shrugged, finally relinquishing his grasp on the railing. “Sure, if you want. Seems a bit slow, though. You sure it’s your kind of ride?”

Sun nodded as they started walking towards the line for the Ferris wheel. “Not usually,” Sun admitted, “but I’ve heard it’s got one hell of a view!”

The line for the Ferris wheel was a bit longer, but again, with Sun carrying on, switching topics, and goading Neptune into playing along with his conversations, the time flew by. 

The Ferris wheel was bedecked with golden fairy lights that ran up and down the support struts. There were colorful triangle panels decorating the arms that extended outwards to the edge of the wheel, and the gondolas were bright cherry red. 

By the time they were seated in the little gondola, a small two-seat car with a rounded bottom and an arched over canopy, the sun had fully set.

Neptune didn’t notice the number of people filtering out of the park, or the fact that nobody else had gotten onto the ride after them. He was too caught up in Sun’s voice, eagerly relaying to him some adventure he’d had with one of his other friends. 

“You did _not_ see a sea monster you idiot.”

“Bro I’m serious! Though I’m pretty sure it could have eaten my face off.” 

The wheel started turning, and as it did, Neptune turned his head to look out towards the city.

“It really is a pretty view…” He admitted, as the sparkling city lights spread out like a speckling of glitter across a black blanket. The fairgrounds were a decent distance away from downtown, and also at a slightly higher elevation. This made for a dramatic landscape which unfolded as their cart was slowly lifted higher into the sky.

“It is,” Sun said, in a tone of voice Neptune couldn’t quite identify. 

Sun wasn’t looking at the city.

They’d just reached the apex of the wheel and were about to begin their downwards descent when the wheel stopped.

It wasn’t a jarring stop, like you’d expect had the wheel somehow jammed. It was soft and deliberate.

Planned.

Neptune turned his head to Sun, who he’d just realized was a lot closer than he’d been so far today, aside from on the coaster cars. But in those, Neptune had been too busy screaming to notice the distance.

That was a lie. He’d very much noticed.

This was different though. And now they were hanging midair, for some reason.

“Sun, what’s going on?” He asked, leaning over slightly to look over the edge of the car towards the ground.

“This… is a birthday present. From me to you.” Sun declared, though his voice lacked some of its usual force. 

He almost sounded nervous. Neptune didn’t know it was possible for Sun to sound nervous.

“I thought the gift was the trip to the amusement park?” he asked, confusion inching into his voice.

Sun scrunched his nose and rolled his eyes. “I mean it was…but this is the real one.” 

That was when the first heart-stopping explosion occurred.

Neptune jumped violently where he was sitting in the cart, hands flying to grip the railing in front of them, blocking the front of the cart. “What the _fuck_ -”

He looked up. 

The sky was ablaze with fireworks.

Great bursts of all the colors of the rainbow decorated the sky against a backdrop of stars. They shot up from the ground in spirals or large balls of brilliant golden light. Zigzagging patterns through the air or elegantly erupting into blossoms of color.

The entire display went on for about five minutes, perhaps more, and Neptune spent all of it transfixed.

He’d never really seen fireworks.

Heard of them, sure. And pictures and videos, but never in person. He’d never really seen the appeal. 

Yet here he was, seeing them, and now he understood why people loved them so much. The sounds, the shapes, the colors. There were so many colors. The sky was a blank canvas that, in an instant, had been painted by watercolor until it was drenched with all the mesmerizing glory it could possibly contain. 

When the last echoes of the bursts had finally stopped ringing in his ears, Neptune sat back against the cart, having not realized he’d leaned forward when the show had begun. 

It was easily the best birthday present he’d ever received.

* * *

The fireworks had been the perfect cherry on top. This day had been nearing perfect, and the fireworks made it all click together. 

When he’d found out it was Neptune’s birthday, he’d realized that there couldn’t be a better way to do this. Finding out about the fireworks at this amusement park had pretty much cemented his decision on what to do. 

Planning the day trip, and keeping it a surprise was more effort than Sun had ever put into any event in his life. 

And watching the colors of the fireworks reflect in Neptune’s eyes had made it all worth it. 

They’d cast shadows that danced over his face, before lighting the night all over again. His glasses reflected the lights, flashing with a million billion colors and casting lights down onto his cheeks. His cheeks were flushed in awe, and Sun was captivated.

When it had ended, Neptune had sat against the backrest of the gondola again, still with an awed expression on his face.

“Did…did you like it?” Sun dared to ask, his heart threatening to beat its way out of his chest.

Neptune turned his head to him with a smile just tugged at his lips.

“I loved it.” And I love you, Sun nearly said. Nearly said, but didn’t say. He wanted to though.

Sun could have left it there. He could have waved to have them brought back down, dropped Neptune off, and just held out a bit longer.

A month was pretty fast, even by his standards. But he couldn’t handle to wait any longer. Already bouncing eagerly against the walls of his heart were the words he’d had tucked away all day.

All week. Month. Since the drive really, twenty-seven days, but who was counting.

Neptune didn’t smile enough. Didn’t laugh enough. And he wanted to make sure that smile stayed, even just for a few moments longer. 

It was why he let it happen, with no plan as to what to say, he just went with what his instincts said to do. Which was always dangerous for Sun, but when had that stopped him before?

They said to do it now, because he’d never find a moment like this with Neptune ever again. 

Sun grabbed one of Neptune’s hands in his, nearly melting then and there when Neptune’s fingers interlaced with his automatically.

It was quiet.

There was just so much Sun wanted to say. Even though it was only a month, and he knew it sounded crazy, and he knew he was probably acting like some stupid lovestruck kid.

So much he wanted to spill out until Neptune understood just how much he meant to him. But words had never been his strong suit, so his stupid brain was settling for hoping his intense gaze conveyed everything he couldn’t.

And for once, Neptune didn’t avert his eyes. Sun hoped that meant he wasn’t totally fucking doomed.

Clinging to that hope, Sun took all the words jammed into the bottleneck his mouth was making. He shuffled them together, and said what mattered most right then and there.

“Will you go out with me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one chapter to go. It's been an honor to bring all y'all along on this journey


	20. Giving In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’ve seen the difference and it’s getting better all the time

Sun grabbed his hand. For the moment, Neptune didn’t know what to say, so he did the only thing that felt natural. So, fingers now interlaced and his heart racing for what was definitely completely innocent reasons, he had to wonder why Sun was giving him that look.

One of those intense unreadable looks of his. Eyes too wide and too blue, but somehow Neptune found that he didn’t need to look away this time.

What was he trying to do here? 

It couldn’t be what he thought… He couldn’t handle that… Not after everything today... 

Panic rose, as Sun struggled for words. Neptune almost laughed at the idea of Sun picking his words carefully, but the question that Sun finally pieced together cut him off like he’d run straight into a brick wall.

“Will you go out with me?”

This…

This couldn’t be happening.

He was dreaming right now, he had to be. 

One month past, Neptune had determined he’d never fall for another too hot straight boy, and if he did, he’d immediately push them away. He’d sworn that he was done, that his heart had been broken too many times to go through that again.

But then Sun happened.

And all of Neptune’s willpower had fallen apart.

Sun who dragged him along on idiot adventures. Who invaded his dorm room. Who smiled at him like he was the entire fucking world. Who was so obviously straight that it caused Neptune physical pain.

So how could he ask this question, with such a sense of longing in his gaze? Like Neptune's answer was all he needed to make his world complete. Why would he ask this impossible question? To  _ him  _ of all people no less.

It didn’t seem possible. It didn’t make sense. 

Say no, say no, say no screamed every cell in his body in a panic. He couldn’t start dating another “straight” boy only to get his heart broken again. He didn't know if he could survive that again.

Especially with Sun.

Neptune prepared to say the word, breath filling his lungs to do so.

He couldn’t date Sun. As much as he hated to admit it, he couldn’t risk ruining their tentative friendship. Sun was so good...far too good. He was loud, and boisterous, and just so  _ alive _ . He was simply everything Neptune could have dreamed of. 

Neptune had barely dared to dream like that for nearly five years now. 

Horrible images of when Sun would inevitably figure him all out and leave were all that filled his mind as he stared at their interlocked hands. Now Neptune really couldn’t meet Sun’s wide-eyed nervous gaze. Because he knew if he did, he would immediately give in. And he couldn’t risk that chance

It wasn’t stubbornness or some physical boundary keeping him away. 

It was fear. 

It scared him to imagine what would happen if he fucked this up. Like he always fucked it up. The way those bright smiles and brighter eyes would leave, and the way this moment, with that expression flooded with fondness, would be torn to shreds. 

Not to mention that this was  _ impossible _ on every level. He’d spent the last month agonizing over falling for another straight guy, only for this to happen? And the world just expected him to handle it  _ well? _

Hell no. Panicking and blurting out the first response that came to mind it was.

So as his lips came to say the word, he tried to lock the memory of this month in his heart. For after turning down such an unexpected display of affection, Sun would definitely never want to see him again. 

But why though?

His heart murmured in that voice that always sounded suspiciously like Scarlet, and stopped him in his tracks. That portion of himself that he almost wished he could force into silence at the moment.

Why go back to being miserable? Why ignore it, if it’s what you want?

And that was true. It was what he wanted. So much that the denial of it was tearing him apart. For so many reasons.

There were so many reasons. 

So many that sometimes it felt like they’d swallow him whole. 

Sun had brought the first pure, innocent joy he’d felt in years into Neptune’s life. 

From the moment he’d come barreling through that door, there’d been an unmistakable connection, even when Neptune had been sure that he’d hated him. But then he’d returned. Even after Neptune pushed him away again and  _ again _ Sun came back.

Filled his drab job and life with light and energy for the first time in years. Them jabbing fondly-barbed jokes at each other, Sun smiling wide enough to brighten the entire room, Neptune rolling his eyes at every idiotic thing Sun said.

Driving… Holding hands… Actually feeling alive for once...

Suddenly he realized that the idea of losing those moments forever. Losing the opportunity to maybe impossible find something more with him… That was crushing. Just thinking about it sent a pang reverberating through his chest.

The thought was enough to convince him. That for how unexpected this was, and how it would undoubtedly end in disaster, and how it would all collapse like a house of cards before his eyes sooner or later, he couldn’t turn it away. 

Not when Sun was looking at him like  _ that _ , with the open and trusting look he’d worn so often. That look that had always baffled him that he finally understood.

“Yes.” 

The world started moving again when he said it, and Sun’s eyes widened comically. 

He was surprised. Neptune couldn't blame him, he was surprised, too. “You…you mean it?” Sun asked, disbelief coloring his words. 

Neptune nodded and smiled slightly. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t,” he reminded.

And he did. He could hardly believe it himself.

But in this moment he was finally willing to admit that he really did mean it.

Hanging there in the sky under the still fading lights of the fireworks and the endless blanket of stars. With his demons all stuck on the ground below, unable to reach him. And Sun here holding his hand so tightly and looking like his entire world was suddenly complete.

“You said… you will… I… thanks,” Sun stumbled over his words as they came out, his cheeks flushing with delight as a cheek-splitting grin spread across his face.

“Why are you thanking me?” Neptune asked, unable to keep the amusement from his voice.

“I dunno…” Sun chuckled sheepishly, still sounding slightly dazed. “Not sure what else to say.” His free hand rubbed the back of his neck, but was still making no move to extricate his other hand from Neptune’s grip.

“You know, I thought you were straight,” Neptune’s mouth blurted before he could stop it.

Oh god. Oh god oh  _ fuck _ why did he say that?! Now Sun was going to-

Sun barked out a peal of laughter, and Neptune let himself relax slightly. “Bro, what?!” 

“I did!” Neptune said, suddenly feeling very defensive, but his lips quierking into a smile despite himself.

“Bro, I’ve been flirting with you for like a month!” Sun exclaimed, fighting to get his words out in between renewed rounds of laughter. “I thought I was being like totally obvious!”

Neptune froze, eyes going wide behind his lenses. “Y- You have?!” he stuttered, flushing deep red. “Wait, that was all serious?!”

“Yeah, of course, bro.” Sun shrugged. “You did it back, so I thought we were on the same page.”

Same page his ass. So Neptune had been freaking out and pining for a month for nothing?! This was some bullshit. 

But… 

He wouldn’t have traded it for the world. Without those weeks of pining, he would never have arrived at this moment. With Sun.

What do I do now? 

Neptune was caught in the moment still, even as he saw Sun leaning towards the edge of the cart, about to wave for them to be lowered back down. 

Back down to earth, where his anxieties and his own expectations would be crawling all over him again.

Where he’d realize every little thing he’d done wrong today, every single moment he should have realized and didn’t, every possible way things with him and Sun could and would crash and burn. All of it would wreak havoc on him the instant he was alone again.

Back to work, full-time at school, back to the real world where he could never have brought himself to accept that this was okay. That this was something he was allowed to have. 

So before he got to earth, he did something stupid. 

Because once he had his feet on the ground, he knew he would never manage to let himself feel this way again. 

Not without regretting it immediately. 

He reached across the cart, put his arms around Sun’s neck, pulled him back from the edge, and brought their lips together.

It barely lasted a heartbeat, just the fastest press of their bodies together, jumpy and erratic. His glasses pushed painfully into the bridge of his nose, and Sun’s hair tickled his forehead. Noses smushed together, and just short enough for him to see Sun’s eyes widen comically in shock.

Neptune pulled away again, already feeling flustered and idiotic for getting caught up in his emotions.

Sun was shell-shocked for a moment, then grabbed the front of Neptune’s jacket and pulled him forward again.

This one was a bit longer, a bit deeper, a few seconds that for all the world lasted an eternity. Heads titled so they fit together, Neptune’s arms snaked around behind his neck, Sun’s eyes fluttered closed. Neptune only had time to really marvel at how pale his eyelashes were, at how many freckles speckled in constellations across his cheeks, before his eyes were closed as well.

By the time they separated, the ride was already moving again. They broke apart in a daze. Neptune’s traitorous mind dutifully catalogued away the wide-eyed deeply flushed look of wonder on Sun’s face. 

“Wow.” Sun had wound up with his arms wrapped around Neptune’s waist, and this was the first time they’d touched beyond Sun’s penchant for arm-grabbing.

“That was...” Neptune managed, not moving to release Sun. His hair was so soft. How was it that soft?

“Yeah...” Sun agreed, not moving his arms. Not letting go.

They better get to the ground quick, or Neptune would melt into a puddle of goo.

Time ticked on, a few seconds just to be there, in the moment.

Neptune glanced back up at Sun, still held firmly to his chest, glad the relative darkness of night hid his blush. “It’s… uh… getting late,” he finally said after far too many moments of them both just staring at each other. 

“Oh… oh! Right! Are you working tomorrow?” Sun asked, releasing him this time around. But still only barely. Their hands were still intertwined.

“Y-yeah,” Neptune replied, making no move to leave Sun’s side any time soon.

The wheel continued its descent. They arrived at the bottom and, after what felt like hours though in reality was only about fifteen minutes, Neptune’s feet hit the ground. 

It felt like a lifetime ago that they’d first entered this park, with Neptune insisting desperately the whole time that this wasn’t a date. That he wouldn’t give in.

He’d never been more glad to be wrong.

They made for the park exit in near silence, and the first few steps Neptune felt something was different in Sun’s stride. He was still swinging their hands in between them, but there was a spring in his step that hadn’t been there all day.

He’d been nervous all day because of this, Neptune realized. How much of this had he planned from the start?

They reached the car faster than it felt they should and said goodbye to the carnival grounds. The ride back was quiet. Well quiet for Sun. The music wasn’t quite as ear-splitting as it normally was, by a barely measurable amount.

They pulled up to the sidewalk in front of his dorm.

“Are you sure you don't want me to walk you up?” Sun asked again, shifting the vehicle into park.

“I’ll be fine,” Neptune insisted as he got out of the car. Scarlet would never let him hear the end of it if he brought Sun back to his dorm after what he was rapidly realizing  _ had _ been a date despite all his protestations to the contrary.

After weeks of bothering him about it no way was Neptune going to give Scarlet the satisfaction of knowing he’d been right.

Unsurprisingly, Sun followed him anyway. “I…had fun today.” Sun said, his feet shifting awkwardly as the two of them stood under the light by the stairwell door.

Neptune nodded. “So did I. And I didn’t expect to… so, thanks for that.”

Sun pouted as if he were offended, although Neptune still couldn’t completely read him. And after all the revelations from today, he sincerely doubted that he’d ever been able to. “You didn’t think I could come up with something fun?”

The spark was coming back into his eyes. 

“Street racing ring a bell?”

“Alright, fair.”

Neptune rocked back on his heels, turning his head away. “Will you…come to the shop tomorrow?” He still couldn’t believe that he was able to ask this. That this was really happening.

“Do you want me to?” Sun asked, a tinge of something creeping into his tone.

Neptune looked up and saw a smug expression crossing his face.

“You’re a moron.” Neptune accused, before stepping up onto the curb of the sidewalk.

“Yeah but I’m  _ your _ moron,” Sun replied without missing a beat, looking positively delighted and grabbing Neptune’s hand.

Was this that moment, again? 

In the dim light of the streetlamp that reflected in Sun’s eyes.

His boyfriend. 

He could say that now, couldn’t he? When this morning he’d been so convinced he’d never have a boyfriend again. And that it definitely would never be Sun.

He’d said yes, hadn’t he? 

If or not that was a good decision, he could mull over later, but the fact stood he had. That funny floaty feeling that he’d felt on the Ferris wheel was still hanging around, blocking out the impending damage control he’d have to do after today. 

But that was a problem for Future Neptune to worry about. For now, he was still free.

So honestly, where was the harm?

He stepped down again, so close he felt his skin buzz.

The lights were dim, and the stars were twinkling above them. Neptune wasn’t even worried about who might see them. Not right now. 

All of it could wait.

Neptune pecked a kiss to Sun’s cheek.“Yes, you are. Happy?”

After the few seconds it took for Sun to process went by, his eyes lit with fire again. “Extremely!” He beamed, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” Neptune responded, smiling fondly at Sun’s antics. His _ boyfriend _ .

“Yeah…see you then,” Sun murmured, sliding back into the driver’s seat. “Love you, bro!” he called, blowing him a kiss and waving. Neptune rolled his eyes and waved back.

He watched the bright blue car sped away from the curb and disappear around the corner. 

After focusing for a moment on steadying his heart, Neptune leapt into the air with a cheer. Not caring who was watching. Not caring that it was the middle of the night. None of that mattered, because the impossible had happened.

And he honestly couldn’t be happier.

Who’d’ve guessed?

Neptune raced up the stairs, feet pounding loudly on the metal steps. The door of his room slammed shut loudly behind him. He collapsed on his bed the instant the door shut.

Telling Scarlet or Jaune or anybody could wait until the morning. For now, he wanted to remember this moment.

His heart was still racing, and a stupidly wide grin was stretched across his face.

He’d said yes.

It was hands down the happiest night of his life so far, bar none. 

A block away, similar thoughts were filling Sun’s mind.

He’d said yes. Holy  _ shit _ he’d actually said yes.

He knew Neptune was stubborn and he’d worried that it was all too fast, but it hadn’t been.

Sun’s heart felt so much lighter. Cloud freaking nine. Finally that stupid saying made sense to him

Neptune had seemed so different today. Not like, different-person type of different, but just… less guarded. Less tense. 

And he said yes. And he kissed me. 

Sun couldn’t get over that. Neptune kissed  _ him _ .

Tonight would be circulating in his head for days to come, no doubt.

I’ll see him again in just a few hours… could I… kiss him again?

His mind went spiraling, millions of possibilities racing each other through his brain. 

It would only be a few hours, but he already couldn’t wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that... we have come to the end. This story has been a pleasure. It's my first real multi-fic that I've ever finished, and now that it's done... Well I dunno. but I'm so glad that you all decided to come along for the journey with me. Hope you like where it ended up, as I one hundred percent enjoyed getting us to here. It's been an honor.


End file.
